Friday, 9 September 2011
Google will launch the latest version of its mobile operating system in either October or November, according to executive chairman Eric Schmidt.
Speaking at the Saleforce cloud computing conference in the US, he said the Android update has been named “Ice Cream Sandwich”.
“We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich, for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone is really excited about,” he said in an interview, featured in the below video (at 29m 30sec).
The update has been tailored to ease the process of writing a single app that works on multiple device types, such as smartphones and tablets.
The number of different devices running on the Android platform means publishers have to address how their apps work on a number of device types from different manufacturers.
This can delay time to market and inflate production costs, and has led some to be wary of producing content for the Android platform.
Separately, Schmidt also provided an update on the uptake of the platform: “Android has about 550,000 phones that are activated a day. That number has doubled in four to five months.”
The Android update is scheduled to arrive ahead of the Christmas shopping season, when Google is also expected to update its own-branded handset range Nexus.
News of the upcoming Nexus handset, manufactured by Samsung and known as Prime, leaked online although exact product specifications, including whether it will run on Ice Cream Sandwich, remain unclear.
