Speaking at the AsiaD conference held here Wednesday, Andy Rubin, the company's senior vice president of mobile, unveiled the newest iteration of the platform, Android 4.0, which will soon ship with other smartphones and tablets.
Rubin said Ice Cream Sandwich will be open source "in a couple of weeks" when Samsung's Galaxy Nexus ships and manufacturers will be free to push the update to their current range of devices. Going open source means manufacturers will be able to put Android 4.0 into their own devices and cut their own ROMs for existing products.
Google previously said the Nexus S would receive the Android 4.0 update, but had not provided a timeframe for this. Honeycomb, the current tablet-only Android OS, remains closed-source and codes available only to select partners and manufacturers.
Both Android 4.0 and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone are expected to ship this November.
In a statement issued Thursday, Ovum's analyst Nick Dillon said the new OS release brings together the phone and tablet strands of Android into a single version, which is the "more important aspect of the update". This is because Android tablets' sales have so far been limited and one of the reasons for this is the relatively small number of apps available for these devices, Dillon said.
"By creating a single version of Android, Google is making it easier for developers to modify their apps and take advantage of the larger screens of tablets, which should stimulate the creation of apps designed for Android tablets," Dillon explained.
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