It’s almost May! And that means that Google I/O is coming up quickly. Normally this is a joyous event for the Andriod community (and I’m sure it still will be) but we’re getting more possible bad news regarding the event. Not only are we likely not going to see the next Nexus phone at I/O, we may not even see the new version of Android we’re all waiting for, Key Lime Pie. According to the latest rumours, we’re going to be seeing Android 4.3 Jelly Bean at I/O and not 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
What you see above is a server log which reveals Android 4.3 Build JW23B. Just in case you’re wondering how that points a new variant of Jelly Bean rather than Key Lime Pie, the writer from Android Police has shown us his work:
- Google doesn’t assign version numbers to Android releases until a short time before they’re set to be unveiled. We’re talking weeks or a couple of months max.
- Google does not assign version numbers to internal/test releases. Those are usually called something like JellyBeanMR1 and then assigned proper versions number when they’re close to release.
- Android 4.3 started appearing in the logs recently, while Android 5.X is nowhere to be found, and neither are any K***** builds.
- Google I/O is in less than a month.
- Everyone has been expecting Google to unveil the newest version of Android at the conference, as Google has traditionally done in the past. Most have suggested that it would be Android 5.0, Key Lime Pie, or some other dessert starting with K, meaning a big leap from Jelly Bean, usually requiring app compatibility updates and bringing serious architectural changes. Think Android 3.0 compared to 2.X and Android 4.0 compared to 2.X and 3.X. That kind of big.
- Recently, a rumor started floating around that the next major revision is going to be delayed to give OEMs (and developers) some breathing space.
- We now know that Google is working on Android 4.3, which is still Jelly Bean. Today’s findings suggest (this part is in my opinion, not a fact) that the company is going to unveil 4.3 and not 5.X at Google I/O. I may end up being wrong on this one, but all the clues are lining up pretty well to fit this theory.
- The versioning likely points to OS changes that are not too drastic for developers to adapt their apps to and OEMs to upgrade devices to. Think Android 2.0 -> 2.1, 2.1 -> 2.2, 4.0 -> 4.1, and 4.1 -> 4.2 (especially the latter). This is a good thing – as we know, Jelly Bean can be found on only 25% of devices, and that’s after Google reworked the algorithm used to report these numbers.
As the author himself states, he could be wrong about this, and I for one am really hoping he is. However, his argument and the evidence seems pretty convincing. And seeing that we’re not likely to see a new phone at I/O, Google may well choose to bring both the new phone and new OS at a later event, though hopefully not next years I/O.
What do you guys think? Is Google just pulling our leg so that we’ll all be wowed when I/O comes along? Or are we going to just have to sit and wait for the next iteration of our little green robot?