Google started off advancing Android version numbers pretty slowly, moving from 1.x to 2.x and then stopping to linger for some time. Since last year, though, we’ve seen signs of an uptick, moving to 3.x and now 4.x in a comparatively short period of time. That’s had us wondering if Jelly Bean, as we’ve been expecting the next major release to be called, would be Android 5.0 or just 4.1. While it’s still not official confirmation, new evidence from Google itself points to Jelly Bean arriving as Android 4.1.
Google started direct sales of the Galaxy Nexus in the Google Play store a little while back. It’s recently been discovered that if you go to purchase such a handset, the device description in the checkout details describes the HSPA+ GNex as “soon the first phone with Android 4.1 Jell..”. It cuts-off there, with no opportunity to expand the text, but it’s pretty clear what we’re dealing with.
That’s very interesting for a number of reasons, and not just because it appears to confirm both the name and version number of this next release. We’re used to seeing such Android revisions premiere on a new device, and this clearly says the GNex will be the first to get it – not just among the first. Perhaps the missing text we can’t see continued to read “…with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean available as an update”, but we just can’t say.
Of course, this could always be a mistake, but someone at Google certainly took the time to type that line out. For now, it’s the best indication of the coming arrival of Jelly Bean we’ve seen.
Update: This tiny thumbnail (expanded 400%), displayed when adding the phone to your shopping cart, may already be revealing how Jelly Bean will appear:
No comments:
Post a Comment