Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ set for October or November arrival

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Handhelds, Software

Last Friday, Google chairman Eric Schmidt slipped that Android 4.0, the next major overhaul to the mobile operating system, will be released in "October or November."

Speaking to Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff at the Dreamforce conference, Schmidt said, "We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October, November." Scroll down to watch the entire keynote; Schmidt slips at 30:28 mark, as reported by AndroidandMe.com.

Up to now, Google hasn't provided a release date for Ice Cream Sandwich, but perhaps Schmidt thought it was an obvious point given unconfirmed reports of Verizon possibly launching the Droid Prime, the first Android 4.0 device and believed to be the third Google Nexus smartphone, this October.

Android users shouldn't get too excited just yet though. Official stats from last week show that Android fragmentation—the phenomenon where different Android smartphones are running different versions of Android—is still alive and kicking. More than half of all Android users are still running 2010's Android 2.2, aka Froyo.

Google first demonstrated Ice Cream Sandwich at Google I/O in May, a version that is supposed to work on smartphones and tablets.

During the same keynote, Schmidt also raised eyebrows when he suggested that Google's acquisition of Motorola wasn't just about patents.

This article, written by Sara Yin, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.