[citation][nom]Azathoth[/nom]I am running a very early alpha of the 4.1 jellybean based Cyanogenmod on my HTC ONE V.My experience running 4.1 versus the 4.0.3 operating system is vastly superior in terms of responsiveness, and the effect of 'Project butter' is quite noticeable.I just wish that the companies would release the updates faster, 4.1 has been released by google for quite some time.[/citation]
Don't put full, or even most, blame on companies like Samsung, Motorola, HTC, etc. Most if not all the blame lies strictly with the carriers.
I personally have the Droid Bionic. It's a great phone hardware wise, but Bionic users have been treated poorly by Verizon. We are months late getting our ICS upgrade but for several months Motorola has sent build after build to Verizon only to have it rejected. Finally this Friday ICS goes to soak test for the Bionic with a push OTA next week.
For all of Apple's fault, Google could take a lesson from them. Apple demands to the carriers that they and they alone control the OS. They don't have to deliver it to the carriers for approval and to have bloatware from the carriers added in. They themselves do it and they themselves deliver to the customer.
Google is large enough, especially now that they own Motorla's mobile division, that they could start "pushing their weight around" and making some similar demands on the carriers. There's no reason there needs to be customization between every Android phone model like the carriers insist on.