Wi-Fi Alliance Certifies Moto X 2014 Marshmallow Update

Wi-Fi Alliance Certifies Moto X 2014 Marshmallow Update

 

 

After Tuesday’s announcement of the newest members of the Nexus family, the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, we were also told that the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update would come pre-installed on this latest hardware, with the update rolling out over-the-air in the coming weeks to existing Nexus hardware from 2013 moving forward.  Soon after, HTC notified press of an event to be held on the 20th of October, likely to present us with their first Marshmallow-clad smartphone, or perhaps a smartwatch like has been rumoured for months if not longer.  But, Motorola didn’t need to tell us publicly that they are avidly at work on the 6.0 update for their hardware since the Wi-Fi Alliance just certified one of those updates.

Unsurprisingly, Motorola has the easiest task when it comes to updating their device’s firmware.  The company historically runs an essentially-Nexus-like build of Android with added features of Moto Display, Moto Voice, and Moto Actions sprinkled on top.  The company was one of the first to send out Lollipop updates after last fall’s announcement of the OS revision and release, and it looks to be the same story this year.

As mentioned, the Wi-Fi Alliance has recently certified an update to pass to the Moto X, specifically the model numbers XT1092, XT1093/XT1094, XT1095/XT1097, and XT1096.  What you might have noticed, if you have one of these models, is that they are the 2014 models, rather than the few-month-old 2015 variants.  This is good to see, but also possibly problematic for those that decided to upgrade to the latest hardware this year.  Motorola will no doubt push out the update for this year’s hardware as well as, it seems, last year’s which is great news for Moto X owners who recall the Lollipop launch for the original Moto X being delayed for months into this year.

The documents from the Wi-Fi Alliance say that the new operating system, Android 6, is fully certified, and the date on the form reads September 30.  That likely means that once the Nexus updates start rolling out next week, we might see Motorola hop into soak test mode then go into full rollout once the update proves non-detrimental to users.