No 'Key Lime Pie' in Android's future
Android named the next version of its popular mobile OS KitKat, after
the chocolate bar. The next version of Android will be called KitKat
after the Nestle chocolate bar, and not "Key Lime Pie," as was predicted
for months, Google said Tuesday.
The news was an unexpected
twist to many Android fans, who had expected the next big release would
be numbered Android 5.0 and would be called "Key Lime Pie," in keeping
with Google's pattern of picking an Android update named after a sweet
treat, starting with the next letter in the alphabet.
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Google's
Android website says the next version will be
Android 4.4, called KitKat, with no mention of when it will be released or what it will include.
Google had not officially ever called the next version "Key Lime Pie," although it had used "KLP" in some written materials.
"Google didn't actually tell us much of anything today," wrote Computerworld blogger
JR Raphael. "We got a name and a number -- and that's it."
Previous
versions have been called "Cupcake" (Android 1.5), "Donut" (1.6),
"Eclair" (2.0), "Froyo," short for "frozen yogurt," (2.2), "Gingerbread"
(2.3), "Honeycomb" (3.0), "Ice Cream Sandwich" (4.0), and "Jelly Bean"
(4.1).
Google has also erected an Android KitKat statue on its corporate lawn, pictured in a short
Google Plus post by Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome and Apps.
"Love
the new #AndroidKitKat statue and can't wait to release the next
version of the platform that is sweet as the candy bar that's one of our
team's favorites J," Pichai wrote.
Separately in
Google Plus, Google said to watch for tickets to win a Nexus 7
tablet
inside a limited edition of Android Kit Kat bars. Nestle uses a space
between the words Kit and Kat for the chocolate bar, according to its
website, but Android will run the two words together as one: KitKat, according to Google.
Why so much coverage and concern over a name for a
smartphone
and tablet operating system? Probably because Android now controls
nearly 80 percent of the smartphone market and half of the tablet
market, according to IDC and Gartner. That means Android already powers
more than 1 billion smartphones and tablets.
When you're that big, you can choose any name you want, analysts said.
A
few analysts couldn't resist poking fun at the name. "Now you can call
your phone -- here Kitty!" quipped Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold
Associates.
KitKat is apparently a better name than some
alternatives, even "Key Lime Pie," or KoolAid, KrispyKreme donuts,
Kahlua or Klondike, the ice cream bar, Gold said. "Maybe it's not so
easy to find a K and this way they get a name brand to co-market with,"
he said.
Some brand experts have said that if Android 4.4 has any problems, it
could tarnish the Kit Kat chocolate bar brand, but apparently that's
not a concern for Swiss-based Nestle.
Google and Nestle decided on the name last November, and Nestle's marketing head, Patrice Bula,
told the BBC
that the decision took Nestle only an hour, even though he recognized
there might be risks if Android 4.4 is vulnerable to malware. The name
was kept secret for the past nine months so it would come as a surprise
when it was finally revealed.
Google's John Lagerling, director
of Android global partnerships, told the BBC that no money changed hands
with Nestle and that picking the KitKat name was designed to do
something "fun and unexpected" even as Google workers internally were
still calling the next Android release Key Lime Pie.
