The next version of the market’s most popular mobile operating system will be called Android Kitkat. The announcement that Google’s OS, popular on smartphones and tablets, would be named after a Nestle chocolate bar has took many by surprise. Android 4.4, the successor to Jelly Bean, was expected to be called ‘Key Lime Pie’.
Android’s history is illustrated via cakes, sweets and confectionary on a new page on Android.com. Starting from Android version 1.5 Cupcake, to 1.6 Donut, version 2.0 Eclair, version 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.0 Honeycomb, 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and 4.1 Jelly Bean. Each of these releases is pictured and given a short description, highlighting what it brought to Android users. The new ‘K’ version of the OS called named Kitkat is described with the following snippet “It's our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody.”
A surprising aspect of this new Google-Nestle deal is that it’s not a paid sponsorship in either direction. “This is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal,” John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, told the BBC. Engadget reports that the Android Kitkat idea was put to Nestle back in November and the deal was fully agreed behind the scenes at the MWC this year. Lagerling had thought that “very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie,” but the humble Kitkat is a staple late-night snack of Google coders and people all around the world.
So it’s a cashless deal and both parties should benefit from the association of these two popular brands? Not necessarily, a branding expert told the BBC - there could be pitfalls if there are problems on either side, having a knock on effect on the other brand. It is pointed out that Nestle has faced criticism in the past for the way it markets baby milk in developing countries and various products have had recalls. Most recently Nestle-produced dog food in the US was recalled due to salmonella contamination. On the other side of the marketing equation Google’s Android doesn’t always get a good press due to the amount of malware attacks on the platform.
The Android Kitkat release will coincide with a competition in both the US and the UK giving away Nexus 7 tablets and Google Play credit. Kitkat chocolate buyers can see if they are winners by opening the specially marked packages of their favourite choccy bar, as seen above.
I’m left wondering about what confectionary the ‘L’ version of Android will be associated with.
