This new OS is supposed to run on all types of Android devices, converging the Android operating system into one sweet package, easing the issue of OS fragmentation and creating new opportunities for developers.
The version number will be 4.0, and we can expect to see the OS rolling out by the end of 2011.
At Google’s developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Google execs said this would be Google’s “everywhere” OS for mobile phones, tablets, and other connected devices.
When exactly this convergence will take place — especially in light of the Honeycomb 3.1 announcements just moments before the Ice Cream Sandwich reveal — is up for debate. But we’re hearing from Google reps that Ice Cream Sandwich will eventually close the 2.X/3.X fork and be the one OS for all Android devices.
We’d heard earlier this year that an OS called “Ice Cream” would be arriving this summer after a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was spotted running the OS at CES. At the time, most reporters were uncertain whether Ice Cream would be a continuation of the 2.4 fork and would function for mobile phones only.
One of the most consistent complaints about developing for Android is the ecosystem’s fragmentation. The hardware is a diaspora; the OSes in use are a crazy quilt. Hopefully, the new OS represents a more consistent direction for Android — one that will once and for all put to rest the more valid criticisms of the “fragmentation” camp.
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