Android Jelly bean rumored in July

According to rumors Google is planning to unveil, not launch the next version of the popular Android platform, codenamed Jelly bean 4.1 by the end of this month. This is great news for all the Android enthusiasts, but the sad part is that the Ice cream Sandwich (ICS), the immediate predecessor of Jelly bean has not gained the traction, which Gingerbread has got. Even after nine months of availability, ICS has only managed to rake in a share of 6.7%, as of June 1 (according to latest Android Developers statistics).   

Despite the launch of Honeycomb (3.1 and 3.2) and ICS (4.0 onwards), Gingerbread (version 2.3) still holds a total distribution of 64.6%. Honeycomb and Ginger bread hold a share of 2.7% and 7%, respectively, taking all the sum of all the versions. 

The pattern emerging in all this statistics is that, while Google is trying its best to launch a new updated version every year, the OEM’s are unable to implement them on their devices as quickly. There is solid reason for the slow implementation on the part of the OEM’s, since OEM’s need to test all their components and add-on’s on the new OS to find out any broken codes. If any OEM tries to quickly launch these devices before proper testing, then they may incur huge expenses in terms of product recall and lost brand value. Another reason for the huge gap between the shares of the old and the new is because most of the OEM’s are running different versions of the Android on their devices.

Google can take a cue from Windows in this aspect and may be launch a new version every two years, thus giving OEM’s time for implementation. Google can also launch a new version for the mobile one year and a version for the tablet the alternate year, thus giving time for implementation. Another rather drastic or crazy suggestion from me goes like this: Since Motorola is now owned by Google. Google has now full control on the hardware part also. Google can test the hardware in all aspects at Motorola and maybe release new versions. It can sell the hardware components also if this strategy is followed. But this sort of strategy will drastically impact the demand for Android, which I believe will affect the overall sales of the Android devices.