Yesterday was perhaps the biggest single day of mobile news in the year, as Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Nokia and Apple announced that their new iPhone event would be taking place in a week’s time. But Google perhaps pipped them all, with news of the latest version of Android.
You may know that each version of Android has a codename, which is 1) in alphabetical order and 2) named after a dessert. We’ve had Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, Honeycomb, FroYo, Eclair and Donut. Well, Android 4.4 is codenamed KitKat – the first licensed dessert to be used as an Android version.
The name comes as part of a branding agreement between Nestle and Google. While no money is changing hands, Nestle will be providing a worldwide marketing campaign in exchange for the name. Nestle will promote the new version of Android on 50 million KitKat bars sold in 19 countries. The two companies are even running a giveaway together on these specially marked chocolates, offering 1,000 Nexus 7 tablets and plenty of Google Play gift cards to lucky winners.
So why KitKat and not Key Lime Pie, which had been teased for months before? Well, Key Lime Pie was apparently nixed after it was determined that not many people worldwide have ever tried the dessert. Android’s head of engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer was a big KitKat fan, even having them made available for coders working at Google, and so KitKat was the obvious alternative dessert beginning with the letter K. Google met with Nestle at the Mobile World Conference to pitch the deal, and within an hour Nestle was sold.
Interestingly, the Android 4.4 announcement video that Google made to celebrate the announncement may have included a cameo from the Nexus 5. At one point in the video, Googlers are taking pictures of the KitKat Android statue, and one person has a smartphone with a horizontal Nexus branding, similar to the new Nexus 7. That phone is thought to be made by LG, and may in fact be the new Nexus 5. Google pulled the video almost immediately upon release, but a copy was saved. If we see that video reappear without that scene, we’ll know pretty conclusively that the Nexus 5 wasn’t meant to be there!
It’s not yet known what features Android 4.4 will bring, but as it’s a point release it’d suggest that it’ll only be a few small additions and bug fixes, rather than a complete redesign. Google are rumoured to be releasing a new Nexus 5 smartphone and new Nexus 10 tablet soon, so it would make sense to expect a new Android release at the same time.
So what do you make of Android 4.4 KitKat? Let us know in the comments below! Thanks for checking out the article and have a good one.
