Google Play says Android 4.1 'Jelly Bean' will launch "soon"
Google may be gearing up for a preview of Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" as early as next week in time for Google I/O.
A Galaxy Nexus listing in the Google Play U.S. store appeared to out the forthcoming mobile operating system. The listing says the Galaxy Nexus will be "soon the first phone with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean."
Little is known about "Jelly Bean" as the Google roadmap tends to give little away. It has been rumoured the update may be released during the second-quarter of this year, and include Google's Chrome as the default browser, which is currently in public beta.
Adoption has been slow, however. It's slowly picking up, but many users are on legacy versions of the mobile software.
Apple, in its recent iOS 6 announcement, criticised Google for its "fragmented" ecosystem as many devices still run an older version of Android.
Currently, there are no fewer than 11 active version of Android while only three versions of iOS.
In the space of three weeks, there was an increase of more than 1 percent in adoption between March 21 and April 3. However, many are stuck using older devices and more than 63 percent of users remain on Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" platform. More than 20 percent are on the older Android 2.2 "Froyo" iteration.
Around 7 percent of users are on Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" according to Google as of June 1.
Many would be surprised if Google didn't announce the next-generation mobile operating system at the Google I/O developer conference next week, just as Apple did with its iOS 6 rival earlier this month.
Image source: Google Play.
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