This is a question mainly aimed at John but I thought others would be interested in the replies so yea

As the subject states, what do Android ROMs go through when they are certified by VF and others where the basic process is likely to be very similar?

Im asking this as to why it takes so long for official carrier updates. My thinking is that Samsung/HTC/whoever sends out the update both to global phones and to carriers so they can do their thing. This version would obviously already be well tested if it's bound to be the same version given to global phones.

So VF has their hands on a stock update, they perhaps add in their own apks for MyAccount and add a VF splash screen. To my understanding any half-baked developer could put this together fair quickly with testing on impacted parts of code within a week.

That can get sent off to Samsung/HTC for their certification and all going well it is being pushed out through Kies/HTC Sync and OTA within 2 weeks after being sent off from Vodafone.

I am obviously wrong somewhere since I am sure if I can think of it, someone else can. John if you are able to give us a run down of what actually goes down with device updates that would be much appreciated