Google's Android 'Jelly Bean' may premiere on an Asus device

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

March 2, 2012 5:52 PM PT

Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and next -- Jelly Bean? According to a report, Benson Lin, an Asus executive overseeing mobile device, has let it slip that the next version of Google’s Android operating system will be called Android Jelly Bean.

“Asus is very close to Google, so once they have Android 5.0 I think there will be a high possibility that we will be the first wave to offer the Jelly Bean update,” Lin told the website TechRadar in a Friday report.

Jelly Bean has been long rumored as the nickname for Android 5.0 whenever it arrives, though Google hasn’t yet confirmed the predictions because it’s still working with hardware makers to get Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, on smartphones and tablets.

Ice Cream Sandwich, which was first released on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, currently runs on about 1% of Android devices.

Asus was the first to put Ice Cream Sandwich on a tablet with its Transformer Prime.

If you don’t follow Android releases closely, you might be wondering what Jelly Bean speculation is all about. Google names each major release of Android after a treat or dessert in alphabetical order.

The Mountain View, Calif., company also has a tradition of placing a lawn statue dedicated to each release in front of Building 44 at Google’s headquarters, which is also known as the Googleplex.

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