Google: Android 4.0 to be open sourced in "coming weeks"

Google's next generation Android 4.0 -- code named "Ice Cream Sandwich" -- will be available to the open source developer community in weeks, one company spokesman said yesterday.

And yes, Ice Cream Sandwich is designed to re-unify the Android code base for smartphones and tablets, and will likely please more in the open source community, the spokesman indicated.

"It will be open sourced in the coming weeks, yes," said Randall Sarafa, a spokesman for Google. "Correct. No, Honeycomb was not [open sourced]."

"ICS will be open sourced, and yes, ICS is meant to reunify and provide *one* release for both tablets and smartphones," Sarafa wrote in another one of several e-mails written in response to questions from this blogger about Google's open source efforts with respect to Android.

Honeycomb, the previous Android 3.0 code base optimized for tablets, was subject to some criticism for its potential to fork Android, and for not being available to open source developers.

""Ice Cream Sandwich is Android 4.0, and it is one release for tablets, smartphones and everything in between. That means that tablets going forward can run on Ice Cream Sandwich as can phones, so it is an update for both tablets and smartphones," Sarafa said.

This blogger wanted to talk to Google about the potential for ICS to compete more aggressively against iPad and iPhone 4 s but was told that a tablet spokesman was not available.

How about a spokesman from Motorola?

Google announced plans to purchase Motorola's mobility business unit for $12.5 billion earlier this year.  Motorola is the largest and most successful hardware supplier of Droid phones and Android-based Xoom tablets.