As Windows Phone 7 users are beginning to discover, the wait for a scheduled update to an operating system can be an agonising one.

Owners of a Google Android handset are somewhat accustomed to this state of affairs, as carriers delay the release of an upgraded OS for customisation/optimisation - or for more cynical reasons - and prevent a simultaneous global rollout.

At MWC 2011, the current chairman and CEO of Google Eric Schmidt addressed the growing unease at fragmentation on the company’s mobile platform by outlining the roadmap for Android tablets and smartphones.

Two become one

“We have (an) OS called Gingerbread for phones, we have an OS being previewed now for tablets called Honeycomb.

“The two of them... you can imagine the follow up will start with an ‘I’, be named after (a) dessert, and will combine these two."

So, there you have it from the horse’s, err, mouth. The next iteration of Android WILL probably be labelled Ice Cream, with Gingerbread and Honeycomb coalescing into a single OS to fight the competition.

As for a release date for Android Ice Cream, Schmidt reiterated that major updates to Google’s mobile OS occur on a “roughly six-month cycle”, so with Honeycomb debuting on the Motorola Xoom next week, we could expect a taste of Ice Cream in late summer.

Nokdroid?

Earlier on in his keynote, Schmidt also confirmed Stephen Elop’s declaration that Nokia had been in contact with the search behemoth, regarding a mobile alliance:

"We would've loved if they chose Android. They chose Windows. The offer to adopt later is still open. We certainly tried."

Food for thought, indeed.

[source: Engadget]