Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android 4.3 Update in Limbo

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update, that seemed like a sure thing when the update was first announced back in July, now appears to be in limbo as Verizon remains silent about the prospects of an update with an Android 4.4 KitKat update seemingly on the way sometime this month.

Back in July, Google announced Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, the most current version of Android available to users, and an update that has pushed out not only to Nexus devices but to non-Nexus devices like the HTC One. It’s coming to the Samsung Galaxy S4 sometime in October as well though no firm date has been established.

At the time of Android 4.3′s initial roll out, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, also known as ‘toro’, saw binaries for its Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update posted to Google’s developer site. Given that listing and given that the GSM Galaxy Nexus received Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, many assumed that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus would receive the update in the weeks ahead.
It’s now October and owners of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus are still searching for answers and have been unable to find any. Verizon’s support page, which typically boasts a ‘Coming Soon’ tag if an update is coming soon, lays dormant. The instructions on there refer to an Android 4.2.2 update, the last update that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus received. If that wasn’t enough, a Verizon representative had this to say on the company’s forums on in response to a user on October 7th:

To make matters worse, Google is close to announcing another version of Android, Android 4.4 KitKat, which is likely going to be making its debut sometime in October, possibly on October 15th. Google hasn’t announced which devices will be getting the update but rumors suggest that it could be coming to older devices.
We’ve seen several companies skip Android updates this year in favor of newer ones, the HTC One in the United States being a prime example, so it’s possible that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, like the Verizon HTC One, could skip Android 4.3 and head straight to Android 4.4. Or not. It’s not clear.

What is clear is that this device continues to frustrate those that bought it back in December of 2011. Right from the outset, the device was plagued with issues including bugs and slow updates. Even now, on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, Verizon customers are looking for a bug fix update to tackle the issues that arrived back in March.
Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners are hopeful that Android 4.2.2 isn’t the device’s final Android update. If it is, the device will have gone out the same way it came into this world. Buggy and flawed with a deceptive Nexus name.