Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich became available in November 2011. Now, only four months later, DigiTimes is announcing that Google will be launching Android 5.0 Jelly Bean in the second quarter of 2012! Is this only a hoax?
Personally I don’t think so. So far, Android 4.0 has not really been up to what Google originally expected. Its slow adoption (only 1% of Android devices are running ICS) is clearly not a sign of real success. Moreover, some of the phones or tablets (e.g. Transformer Prime tablet) which have received the Android 4.0 upgrade have experienced crashes and freezing. Another reason that might have forced Google to rush the development of Android 5.0 might be the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 which is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2012.
In fact, the rumours claim that Android 5.0 Jelly Bean will feature a dual-boot function in order to allow Windows 8 to run by its side and give the users a greater choice by allowing them to switch between the two operating systems. Ice Cream Sandwich became famous because it was the first OS to run on both smartphones and tablets alike. If the rumours are true, Jelly Bean will go much further. Apart from smartphones and tablets, it should also be able to operate on netbooks and notebooks. Google is clearly looking for an opportunity to enter the notebooks and netbooks markets.
But is this going to be a good strategy? Is the timing right? Or is the launch of Android 5.0 Jelly Bean going to coincide with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades? So many questions that only time is going to answer. But for now let’s trust Google and more importantly let’s not get carried away too much. After all, these are only rumours…
