The competition is making the giants to update their things so fast. Lot of android ddevices are still running 2.2 Froyo and even 2.3 Gingerbread is not complete skimmed. Now the Google is making us a dessert for us. The next verion of Android, Version 2.4 (Icecream)

Android-powered devices are currently running 2.2 (Froyo) or 2.3 (Gingerbread), and at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Motorola unveiled the Xoom tablet, the first device to run the major update, Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), optimized for larger-screen tablet use.

There are now reports that the next release, 2.4, will either be called Ice Cream or Ice Cream Sandwich. But however they are labeled, future Android updates will have their work cut out in competing with Apple's iOS, which powers the iPhone and iPad. The iPhone 4 is currently distributed by AT&T and soon by Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carriers.

If Android 2.4 arrives this summer, it will compete with the anticipated iPhone 5, which will pack the latest hardware and software from Apple's labs at Cupertino, Calif.

"The iPhone 5 will come out in June, at the same time 2.4 will become common," said technology consultant Rob Enderle. "The stakes are high. They're going to have to up their marketing game."


In a brief interview Wednesday, Google spokesperson Randall Sarafa couldn't tell us much about future Android updates. "We haven't set a timetable," he said, also declining to comment on the Verizon iPhone.

The latest data from Nielson shows Android and iOS almost neck-and-neck in the race for smartphone dominance in the U.S., with Apple ahead by a nose at 28.6 percent, compared to Android's 25.8, based on data from June through November.

Close behind is Research In Motion's BlackBerry, at 26.1, although Android is leading with new purchasers, 40 percent of whom chose Android during that period, compared with 27 percent for Apple and 19 percent for BlackBerry.