Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" and its tablet drawn much attention at the Consumer Electronics Show.
While Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” and its tablet drawn much attention at the Consumer Electronics Show it is Android 2.4 “Ice cream” that is now mentioned in many rumors concerning its release in May 2011. The coming Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” is welcome with its enhanced focus on tablet devices such as the Motorola Xoom. However, smartphone enthusiasts also concerned that Google might forego small-form-factor devices for larger tablets. According to rumors from Pocket Lint, Google has worked on Android 2.4, codenamed “ice cream,” with a focus on smartphones and Android devices.
It is reported that Android 2.4 will be revealed at Google’s I/O conference in May. There are some different rumors mentioning that the release date of the system will be on that date or in June or July. Moreover, Google has wanted to slow down the pace of major Android releases to about two per year which was indicated that Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” was released in December, a May-to-June timeframe is suitable if Google remains developing the Android 2.x line.
Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” was released in December.
If rumors are true, the numbering and naming scheme may show that Google’s plan is to maintain two separate branches of Android in which Android 3.0 (with the first incarnation in “Honeycomb”) designed for tablet and entertainment devices whereas Android 2.x (perhaps extended with “Ice cream”) is used on phones and small portable devices. The name “Ice cream” starting with “I” seems to be logical in accordance with Google’s alphabetic naming scheme: previous released of Android were codenamed Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, and now Honeycomb. However, no information about planned features and capabilities for the introduction was found via the rumors.
