With the announcement that the next version of Android will merge Honeycomb and Gingerbread, Google has confirmed that the new Ice Cream version of its mobile and tablet operating system, Android, will be accompanied by new hardware.
Andy Rubin, head of Android, and chief executive Eric Schmidt, said that it was important that the new versions of an operating systems were not simply thought experiments.
Rubin did not expand on which manufacturer would be involved, nor did he elaborate on a form factor for the device.
Its Nexus One, which had encouraging sales, was manufactured by HTC, and and the sequel, Nexus S was made by Samsung. Google’s first official tablet, the Xoom, is made by Motorola.
Schmidt said his vision for the future was ‘for the masses, not the elites’. He said he expected 2 billion ‘who we’ve never heard from will enter our conversation in the next year”.
