Google has released Android 4.0 -popularly known as Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)- source code publicly to download. However, the release is not contentment for companies presently working on Android 4.0 platform like upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
Android 4.0 is more significant than its previous version in aspect of unified environment because it can work with Tablets as well as Phones both. It’s also very important to note that the company has released its tablet code to public inspection very first time. However, the Android ICS version is not completely tablet-based OS but also works on Smartphone environment. As we know, the previous version Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) – a tablet centric version of Google- was released only to some of its selected hardware partners and therefore the company denied to release it publicly. Probably, the reason behind such denial might be its competitiveness and unsuitability for widespread exposure.
However, the company’s source said that the ICS code is created as an extension – I would call it enhancement rather – of Honeycomb and it elaborates full description of Android source code. Google’s software Engineer-Queru- said “Honeycomb is little incomplete, so we want everyone to focus on ICE. So, we haven’t created any tags that correspond to Honeycomb release.”
Although, the public release of source code might create strain between Google and mobile handset manufacturers like Samsung & HTC – who work on Android extensively for customization- but the company’s unfetter approach over Android ICS source code in this stage is much appreciated. By releasing the source code, the company has depicted the true definition of openness of the source code.
