Rumors are soaring around the Web about the upcoming Google operating systems. Whether it’s the release date of Gingerbread to current Froyo phones, the introduction of Honeycomb on the market, the release of Froyo to phones that Samsung hasn’t been paying enough attention to, or — more recently — the release of Android’s 2.4 operating system. We previously reported that this 2.4 OS would be released during the summer, and gave our reasons why this seems like a likely piece of speculation (short version: naming conventions, previous release patterns, timing with Google I/O) and that it’s name would be Ice Cream. Well, it looks like we (along with just about everyone else in the blogosphere) got something wrong.
According to Tech Crunch journalist Jason Kincaid, he got the inside story directly from Andy Rubin, Google’s VP of Engineering and the head of the Android project. The upcoming 2.4 release will not be named “Ice Cream,” says Kincaid. Rather, it will be named “Ice Cream Sandwich.”
Kincaid also points out another interesting fact that I’ve managed to miss (so maybe you have too): the Operating Systems are moving forward in alphabetical order. To recap:
- Cupcake
- Donut
- Eclair
- Froyo
- Gingerbread
- Honeycomb
And now, of course, the infamous Ice Cream Sandwich. Kincaid also says that choosing an ice cream sandwich instead of just some scoops of ice cream makes “perfect sense,” if only for design reasons. To commemorate each OS, Google has a sculpture created for the Android Headquarters, and “Ice Cream” would look too much like “Froyo.”
Of course, neither the rumor of Ice Cream Sandwich title or the various release dates being thrown around (June being the most popular) are confirmed. It’s fully expected, however, that we’ll learn a lot more on this topic as we hit Google I/O in May, where the technology giant will be releasing details on any of its exciting summer plans.
