Official confirmation has been given on Motorola's blog regarding Android 5.0 Lollipop coming to the Moto X (1st and 2nd gen), Moto G (1st and 2nd gen), Moto G with 4G LTE, Moto E, Droid Ultra, Droid MAXX, and Droid Mini.
Last week, we speculated that the highly anticipated new operating system from Google would hit the Motorola devices based on a teaser page the company posted earlier in the month. But a post at Motorola's blog on Thursday makes it official.
"Now that Android 5.0 Lollipop will be going to the world with Nexus 6-a product of some of our own engineering-we are excited to confirm that this latest and greatest Android release will also come to our other devices as part of our ongoing software strategy to provide fast updates to our pure Android experience," the blog post from Steve Horowitz, Senior VP of Software Engineering, read.
"Please stay tuned for more information on timing and other products, pending the public release and working with our various partners," the post continues. "And, you can always check for the latest on your specific device by going to our software upgrades page."
Lollipop is Google's latest upgrade to the popular Android platform, introducing a new Material Design interface style, improved notifications, new Priority and Guest modes, more efficient runtime software, and much more. The OS is set to launch on November 3 with Google's flagship Nexus devices, but this news from Motorola is sure to please Moto and Droid fans everywhere.
The first Moto X released in 2013, while the second generation launched just this past September. The Moto G and Moto E are lighter on the tech specs than the higher-end Moto X, but that's refected in the cheaper price.
As for the Droid series, the Droid Ultra and the Droid MAXX are the ones you want if you're looking for top-end technology, but they're exclusive to Verizon customers. The Droid Mini is more for the budget-minded smartphone users, and it's also exclusive to Verizon. All three Droid phones replace the Droid Razr HD line from 2012.
But the big question is "When." When will we see Lollipop hit the Motorola phones? Will the release be staggered according to carrier, like last year? Since Motorola is actually the manufacturer of Google's golden child Nexus 6, we imagine that the Motorola line of products will get some sort of release priority over those manufacturers not directly working on Google products. But none of that has been confirmed.
Last year, Android's 4.4 Kitkat was released on October 31, and was seen on the Moto X on November 19 for Verizon customers. Whether we'll see a repeat of that timeline for this year has yet to be seen, but we're crossing out fingers.
