Android Gingerbread on LG Optimus

Soon after Android’s latest update – version 2.3 or Gingerbread – was released, a post on LG USA’s Facebook page said that the new OS would not be coming to LG’s Optimus series, although these phones were released just this year on the Android platform. LG said this since Gingerbread requires 1GHz of processing speed, while the Optimus line uses processors clocked at 800 MHz.
This post was in response to a question on the company’s Facebook page, and quite understandably sent Optimus users in a tizzy because these supposedly next generation devices cost more than $200 or Rs 12,000.
LG Optimus gets Gingerbread
Things seem to have ended reasonably well, however, both for LG Electronics and for its Optimus smartphone users. HTC’s G2 Android device, which is bundled with a T-Mobile connection in the USA, is able to upgrade to Gingerbread though it too runs on an 800 MHz processor.
This might have been why people had wondered whether Optimus would be compatible with Gingerbread as well, and therefore ventured to ask LG about it in the first place. It later emerged that the 1 GHz processing power that Gingerbread presumably demanded was a recommendation rather than a requirement.
Processing power for Gingerbread
While it’s correct that there are no hard and fast requirements for the CPU, as the software grows mature, older hardware will tend to prove inadequate. That is the way technology works. Even if 800 MHz processors run Gingerbread, the machine’s computing speed might be sluggish. Subsequent updates, assuming they can be installed, will certainly stall the machine altogether.
LG made a late entry into the smartphone market this year and subsequently suffered some corporate setbacks as well. The company now intends to make up by aggressively promoting its Optimus series of smartphones (2D animated ads of which you might have come across on Yahoo and other popular websites), and by making timely moves with regard to the tablet market.