By 
It’s long been believed that the next iteration of Android – after the newly-launched Gingerbread 2.3 – would be Android 3.0. Honeycomb is to change the way people see and use Android, if not period then for a better tablet experience. From what we’ve seen so far in leaks and cameo appearances, Honeycomb definitely looks like enough of a jump to consider it more than just another incremental release.
A source of A&M’s says otherwise though: Honeycomb will be launching as Android 2.4, they say. Not that the version number really matters in the grand scheme of things, but if we assume Google approaches versioning – a very serious part of the software development cycle for any vendor – the same way company-wide, then we could assume that a major release like Honeycomb would warrant an entirely new version number. We wouldn’t be at Chrome 8 already, otherwise.
But that’s only if we assume. We really don’t know. The most interesting part of this rumor, though, is that their source seems to confirm a grand unveiling at the Mobile World Congress – a major industry trade show – going down mid-February in Barcelona, Spain.
Not too much of a stretch considering we’re expecting to see some Honeycomb tablets in Q1 (and we’re still hearing rumors about a couple of Honeycomb tablets being shown as early as CES.) At least for that side of the story, I hope their source is right. I couldn’t really give two hoots about the version number. In fact, I’m more interested about how the oversized statue will look on the Android building’s front lawn.
the title is wrong, it says 2.3
Fix the title please… I got quite confused when I read that lol..
“But that’s only if we assume. We really don’t know”
… nothing to see here…
Doesn’t sound likely…
I always believed the articles here were written by people whose main language was not English.
This mistake, with a number, however.. leads me to believe you guys just can’t type.
Sorry about that. Didn’t get much sleep last night.
OH EM GEE THEY SPELLED IT WRONG!
fuckers this is the internet. NOBODY can spell. waaaahhh
hahah…2.3 is ‘sweet’ and 2.4 will be even ‘sweeter’
I dunno. Chromium’s on 10 and it’s not a world apart from Chrome 8. GPU acceleration and app capabilities, but other than that just bugfixes from what I’ve read in the logs. Oh, except the most recent builds which are broken as hell.
Guess Google don’t really give one!
I love how a month ago, Gingerbread was to be 3.0 and Honeycomb could’ve been 3.5.
Now, GB is 2.3 and Honeycomb might be 2.4.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
And Samsung will still be on 2.1
I don’t really give a shit, as long as I have the 10″ Moto tablet in my hands by mid-March at the latest.
@ckeegan
Second that notion :o)
Awesome, honeycomb almost here. Samsung now you can skip froyo and gingerbread and go straight to honeycomb on my vibrant!
I’m only dreaming…
Uh, guys, I don’t think version numbers are a very serious part of Google’s software development cycle.
Evidence: http://www.favbrowser.com/google-chrome-so-thats-the-real-reason-behind-the-fast-version-number-progression/
Or, at the very least, Chrome’s not exactly the best example.
@dan:
Vibrant: Hi, I’m Vibrant. You were supposed to upgrade me…
Samsung: Im sorry. Veebrant? Vibro? Sorry, never heard of you, don’t know what you are taking about. Have you met Nexus S? We promise full…
Vibrant: Nevermind.
Does it really matter what the version number is? They could have called Cupcake 9.0 for all I cared, as long as it brought the improvements and HC can be v900, as long as the tablets rise behind it.
Bugs me how hung up people get on that when it has no real impact on the system.
I thought I read a while back that Google wasn’t going to be releasing updates to Android so frequently in the future. This will be what? the 5th update in a little over a year.
Android has it’s roots in Linux of course.. Should Honeycomb should be 2.4 or 3.0 ? .. Well let’s look at the Linux kernel.. it went from 2.4.x to 2.6.x in December 2003.. hundreds of updates later I am now at 2.6.32-26 So.., if and whenever it goes to 2.7 it’s going to be big news.. Gnome and KDE desktops are the same way.. Going from KDE 4.3 to 4.4 is a pretty big deal, going from 3.5 to 4.x was a phenomenal rewrite of the whole shebang (technical term).. I imagine it will depend on whether or not Honeycomb is different enough from Gingerbread to deserve a 3.0 jump .. maybe.. we’ll see I suppose.
Another possibility is that some of the 3.0 stuff was slipping out too much for the Feb timeframe, so they are cooking a 2.4 for tablets and the rest of Honeycomb will be 3.0.
This will probably only come out for tabs in Feb then phones in May. But that’s only an assumption based on what Rubin said at DiveIntoMobile. He said that it would first be out for tabs then phones later on – and it makes sense that Honeycomb would come out in Feb as Motorola, LG, and HTC tablets were “rumored” to come out in Q1..
Fuzzy, that sounds close to what likely happened. Tech companies have to rescope their work as it becomes apparent that you don’t have enough time to do everything that you wanted to do.
Actually I would be a little disappointed if honeycomb isn’t going to be 3.0. Don’t you think three incremental updates is enough already? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Android 2.x family but if Google wants to “blow user’s mind away” they’d need more of a jump. The changes from 2.2 to 2.3 just didn’t do the trick.
BTW, am I having a mini-stroke causing partial dyslexia, or is this article incredibly hard to understand?
@ dan
don’t ask sammy to update your phones i’m still waiting for 1.6 for the original galaxy(02 uk)
@Chris “And Samsung will still be on 2.1”
Yea, unless your a BH2 sucker like me! 1.6 for life !!!
argh.
So we’ll be using the Gingerbread for, what, a month or two?
Btw, where is my Gingerbread?