Repeat: Android is Not Fractured

Here comes yet another Android skin:

Japan’s Sharp said Monday it will release a new user interface for its smartphones in an attempt to differentiate them from the Android masses.

The Osaka-based electronics maker’s new “Feel UX” will feature a simplistic design with large icons, and allow many phone functions, such as camera, photo gallery, and music player applications, to be accessed directly from the lock screen. Once unlocked, the interface has three main screens, one each for apps, shortcuts to phone features, and widgets such as calendars and clocks.

The details of the custom UI don’t really matter, but two things do. One, how much crapware will carriers load up on the thing, and two, which version of Android will it run? Carriers are notorious for taking great hardware and just ruining the user experience. And Android 4.0 is very, very good — but is running on less than 8% of ‘droids. And

Try as I might though, I couldn’t find where Sharp said which version they’ll load, or whether it will be upgradable to future releases.