Given the checkered history of the Droid Bionic, there is plenty of reason to hope that Motorola would do a better job of rolling out Android updates as an indirect apology. Unfortunately, the manufacturer has seemingly done quite the opposite, and has pushed back the rollout of the phone’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the fourth quarter of this year to massive disappointment.

In many ways, the Droid Bionic had a brilliant future ahead of it. It was unveiled in January 2011 to great acclaim, but while Motorola promised a second quarter release for the handset, it actually delivered in September, right at the tail end of the third quarter of that year. By any measure, it was still a good smartphone, but plenty of heavy-hitting competition was already available at the time.

Fast forward a few months: Motorola promised in December 2011 that the Droid Bionic would get Ice Cream Sandwich, and we’re still waiting for that update. It was even overtaken in the Android update stakes by Motorola’s early 2012 flagship, the Droid RAZR.

Promises are good, but money in the bank is better. Unfortunately, while owners of other 2011-or-newer Motorola handsets who were explicitly left out of the Ice Cream Sandwich/Jelly Bean update cycle should get a $100 credit to upgrade to one of the manufacturer’s newer models, Droid Bionic owners don’t get this luxury.

The Droid Bionic is one terrible case of how Android fragmentation makes life miserable for everyone. Many other manufacturers aside from Motorola suffer from this, and it’s easy to understand that updates are tough to roll out considering the differences in hardware as well as the influence of wireless carriers.

Still, this is a situation that has to change, and Motorola should do well to roll out the Droid Bionic’s update soon, or put its money where its mouth is and offer the same sort of $100 credit to the unfortunate owners of that device.