Well now for the thousands of AT&T customers that purchase an Android smartphone on the AT&T network in 2011, and are still running on Android 2.2 Froyo, you might like to hear that AT&T is going to be updating your smartphone to Android 2.3 Gingerbread in the not too distant future.

According to the guys over at Android Community, AT&T has announced they will roll out the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update to all handsets that were purchased during 2011, starting off with the Motorola Atrix 4G as of yesterday and will be followed by the HTC Inspire 4G sometime in the coming weeks.

The Android devices planned for receiving the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update are the Motorola Atrix 4G, HTC Inspire 4G, Samsung Infuse 4G, Samsung Captivate, Pantech Crossover and the LG Phoenix.

Apparently delivery of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update will vary with device by AT&T say that where possible the update will arrive over the air, which probably means that if you own a Samsung device you’ll have to suffer the pain of getting the update via Samsung Kies.

For HTC Inspire 4G users you’ll need to keep your eyes open for notification of the Android Gingerbread update availability some time in August over a WiFi connection.

According to AT&T the Gingerbread update delivers “a number of improvements, such as user interface refinements, refined copy/paste functionality and speed enhancements. The upgrade offers improved power management that offers a more active role in managing applications in addition to an improved on-screen keyboard with multi-touch support that makes typing faster and more accurate.”

So there you go, all you AT&T customers that bought an Android handset from AT&T this year should soon be playing nice with the latest Android operating system as long as all goes according to plan.

A word of warning to those that will be force to use Samsung Kies to update, there is a slight chance using Samsung Kies will actually brick you smartphone, I know this from personal experience when trying to update my Samsung Galaxy S to Gingerbread via Kies, and my device is now undergoing repair, as I previous mentioned in my Samsung Kies rant post.

So if by any chance you do experience any issues in grabbing the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update once it’s available feel free to voice your issues to our comments area below.