Little is known about the next version of Android, currently being referred to as "Ice Cream Sandwich," except that it could be arriving some time this summer. During his keynote speech at MWC today, Eric Schmidt dropped some knowledge on the "I" version of Android, but details were still tight. Schmidt said that the next version of Google's mobile OS will "start with an I, be named after a dessert" (shocking!) and will combine aspects of Gingerbread and Honeycomb to create one OS to rule them all. Unfortunately, there were no release details given, although Schmidt did say that updates have been coming in a "six month cycle."
Schmidt also touched quickly on the Nokia-Microsoft deal during his speech, saying that his company "certainly tried" to get the Finnish manufacturer to get in bed with Android instead of Windows Phone 7. We all know how that whole situation turned out, but the former CEO said that the offer "is still open." Whether Nokia ever accepts is a different story.
Finally, some Android stats were given during the keynote, the most interesting of which concern activations and apps. Eric Schmidt said that there are now 350,000 Android phones activated every day, and that those handsets have access to over 150,000 apps in the Android Market.
Although the whole "Android fragmentation" issue has certainly been disappearing as of late, it's nice to see the Big G tackling the problem even harder by combining 2.3 and 3.0 into one cohesive OS. It's kind of a bummer that we still don't know when Ice Cream Sandwich is going to arrive, but since Honeycomb isn't even out yet (and Gingerbread is barely out), at least we'll have something to keep us busy while we wait.
Via Engadget (1), (2), (3)