A report coming out of DigiTimes suggests that Google might be looking to launch Android 5.0 ‘Jelly Bean’ in the second quarter of this year. Honestly this seems a little far-fetched, but I understand the reasoning behind it. From the article, Google are hoping to better optimise the OS for tablets and netbooks and allow the device to go between Android and Windows 8 without having to shut down the device and start it up again.
DigiTimes also reports that hardware partners aren’t happy with the initial pick-up of Android 4.0 — only 1% of devices accessing the Android Market are on 4.0+ — so Google will be speeding up development of Android 5.0.
I’m taking this with a huge grain of salt. Instead I think it’s more plausible that Google will push an updated version of 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ with more optimisations for tablets, as they have said in the past that they were sticking to a yearly cycle of versions. I think it’s likely that in the coming days Google will respond to the speculation and set the record straight.
hardware partners aren’t happy with the initial pick-up of Android 4.0. bloody right because we are still waiting on a promised…
The rumor might mean an announcement in Q2, but launch will come in later months.
ICS was announce June last year at Google I/O and launched last Nov.
I would have ICS on my SGSII…. if only optus would update it…. 🙁
I’m thinking the same thing as everyone else – OEMs, pull your finger out!
Every Tegra2 Honeycomb tablet released last year should have ICS by now.
Seems to me as though april fools day is a little early, seriously this news is so bogus, cannot believe you would post this.
“DigiTimes also reports that hardware partners aren’t happy with the initial pick-up of Android 4.0 — only 1% of devices accessing the Android Market are on 4.0+ ”
Wouldn’t this be the hardware partner’s faults instead of Google’s unless Google is dragging their feet with approval. I can still basically count with my hands the devices shipping with ICS from popular Android device manufacturers.
I’m taking this article with bucket loads of salt.
Wait. Hardware partners are upset over 4.0 pick up, so you go and put pressure on Google for a newer version with an even likelier smaller uptake?
Care factor zero .. STILL FREAKIN WAITING FOR ICS TO HIT MY SGS2 .. Come on Google .. start enforcing forced world wide OS rollouts already! by the time ICS hits my phone I’ll be due for an upgrade so who cares! /endrant.
Am I missing something here? Hardware partners are unhappy with the initial pick-up of Android 4.0? Pickup by who? Consumers? Last time I checked hardware manufacturers – manufacture devices.. it’s kinda not our problem that there’s no ICS ‘pickup’ when they are still shipping GB devices..
Wha?
Google wants people to be able to turn their Android tablets into Windows machines? This just sounds like silliness.
As for the Uptake of Android 4… hrrmmm. It’s coming. The various companies have revealed there plans. It’s coming.
Buckets of Salt, Buzz. Buckets.
Yeah, this makes no sense to me either?
Why the hell would google want to allow people to swap between their OS, and one of their competitors?
It basically means that google will get a slice of the Win8 tablet pie. It seems less of a case of running win8 on an android device, but more running android on the other. After all, Google makes their money from serving web ads and app sales, not off the actual OS. More people connected to the internet increases their profits no matter what OS.
It’s similar to the answer of “Why would Microsoft make Office for Mac – isn’t Apple one of their direct competitors and doing so meaning that they won’t by Windows?”. The fact is that a device running Android and Windows allows Google to generate more revenue than a tablet running just Windows. If the rumor is true and they are going for either virtualisation of the OS along side Windows in a hypervisor or dual booting between them, then what it really shows – to me at least – is that Google are taking Windows 8 (and whatever the tablet… Read more »
I mention tablets a lot there – where ever I say “tablet” you should probably replace it with “tablets and phones”.