On the eve of IFA 2013 Google has dropped a bombshell. The next version of Android won’t be called Key Lime Pie, in fact it won’t even be Android 5.0. Senior Vice President of Google, Sundar Pichai, confirmed that the next version of Android will be named after the chocolate KitKat. Apparently KitKat’s are a favourite snack at the Google offices, hence the name Android 4.4 KitKat.

Just back from a whirlwind trip to Asia visiting our Android ecosystem partners in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Exciting to see all the high quality Android devices available now, including Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, LG G2, Sony Xperia and many more. Also looking forward to the new devices our partners are launching in Berlin at IFA, played around with them last week and really nice — stay tuned; we’ve got a lot more coming! All this Android innovation is driving tremendous ecosystem momentum and I’m excited to share that together we’ve now passed 1 Billion Android device activations. Huge thanks to the entire Android community from the hardware manufacturers, chip makers and carriers to the developers and content creators to all of you – our Android users around the world – for making this possible. On my return from Asia, I was also thrilled to find this guy waiting to greet me on the front lawn — love the new #AndroidKitKat statue and can’t wait to release the next version of the platform that is as sweet as the candy bar that’s one of our team’s favorites:)
Sundar Pichai
Google Plus

This is extremely surprising since Google usually keeps the name of the new version of Android close to its chest until right before launch. What’s even more interesting is the page for Android 4.4 KitKat. The page gives a history of Android, from Cupcake to KitKat, with a short tagline describing each update.

Google decided to spill even more beans (no pun intended), in regards to the new update with the new tagline for Android 4.4 KitKat stating “It’s our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody.”

It’s our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody.

What does it mean? It probably means Google is going to allow people with older hardware to get onto the latest version of Android, finally squashing the claims that Android is suffering from fragmentation.

Google hasn’t given an exact release date yet, but taking into account recent history and the fact that Google usually keeps the name of the new version of Android close to its chest until right before launch, the update could be imminent.

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with the latest information in regards to Android 4.4 KitKat, so make sure to follow this space closely.

Do you like the new name? Are you looking forward to Android 4.4 KitKat?