Home » News » Mobile Phone News » Android 3.0 Gingerbread Details Revealed, Whips Froyo

Android 3.0 Gingerbread Details Revealed, Whips Froyo

By Gordon Kelly
01 July 2010

Excited about the long awaited roll out of Android 2.2 for the Nexus One? Pah, old news...

Details have already begun to spill out on Android 3.0 - codenamed 'Gingerbread' and yes, they're tasty (sorry, couldn't resist). Mobile Review's Eldar Murtazin has done the digging, but we have Unwired View to thank for translating his Russian language podcast 'Digestive' and here's what they found:

Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released to developers in mid-October. First 3.0 handsets ship in November/December
Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 3.5in display with support for 1280 x 760 pixels on screens over 4in
Completely revamped user interface (has

Matias Duarte

A formal split between Android 3.x which will be reserved for high end devices, and 2.x which will continue to cater for the mass market

Quite frankly if Google is going to pull all this off then the smartphone and tablet sectors will be even bigger business come Christmas. On the flip side, I suspect we'll have to wait a while yet for Google to start confirming this - though interestingly, it hasn't denied it...

Update: Dan Morrill, Android Open Source and Compatibility Tech Lead, has come out and said rumours aren't official announcements and said there are always fanciful notions about Android going around. None of which you'll actually notice specifically dismiss what Murtazin has to say...

Sources:
Digestive (Yep, it's all Russian)
UnwiredView

Latest mobile phone reviews

Mobile phone reviews

Comments

Please wait while we process your request

Please wait while we retrieve the user's information

Bio

Your bio is currently empty. Now is a great time to fill in your profile.

This profile is private.

This profile is only shared with friends.

This profile is under review.

We were unable to request friendship with this user.

We were unable to request friendship with this user. Are you logged in?

Your friendship request has been sent to this user.

We were unable to terminate friendship with this user.

We were unable to terminate friendship with this user. Are you logged in?

You are no longer friends with this user.

We were unable to ignore this user.

We were unable to ignore this user. Are you logged in?

This user is now ignored.

We were unable to stop ignoring this user.

We were unable to stop ignoring this user. Are you logged in?

This user is no longer ignored.

pluck_user_mp-abuse_too_long_err

Name withheld

rav

8:31 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore rav. Show Details Hide Details

This sounds like the beginning of real fragmentation where there's a two tier system for higher end and lower end phones.

Wonder who will even have 2.2 by the time Gingerbread comes out.

Score:

Name withheld

MarcD

8:44 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore MarcD. Show Details Hide Details

Blimey, that's quick, i thought that this wouldn't come about until next year, especially as they've said that they'd be spacing out the updates. I'm still (im)patiently waiting for 2.2 to hit my Nexus One. I just hope that N1 is deemed favourable for Gingerbread, i don't want have buy another phone yet.

Score:

Name withheld

Soul

9:56 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Soul. Show Details Hide Details

I think my htc desire has those capability's, will it be allowed this 3.0 update!!!

If the Htc sense, is getting removed.... then i shouldn't have to wait for htc to release a update?

(hmmm, but i like htc sense, it just works)

Score:

Name withheld

Kaurisol

10:18 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Kaurisol. Show Details Hide Details

Hmm - isn't this similar to the split for Nokia between Symbian and Maemo/Meego with Symbian for the "mass-market" and Maemo/Meego for the "high-end"? And a similarity with the various flavours of Symbian and Android 1.x - 2.x?

Much as I hate to say it, Apple do keep OS fragmentation to a minimum - albeit with a limited range of phones.

Score:

Name withheld

Chrispynutt

10:23 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Chrispynutt. Show Details Hide Details

I can see why 3.0 is being fast tracked. A large part of the fragmentation is due to the each handset maker using its own UI over the top of Android. So ever release then has to wait on a 2.1/2.2 port of the UI before users get it.

By making 3.0's UI good enough for everyone and by cracking down on the non-standard UIs they can reduce fragmentation over the long run. It also makes it easier to shift make. You don't have to choose between HTC SenseUI, Moto Blur, SE UI, Samsung TouchWhiz and so on.

This makes sense as even the choice of KDE Vs Gnome is a enough of a pain as it is.

I do think the high requirements are a bad move, to compete with the iPhone you need variety, not high end handsets only.

Score:

Name withheld

Jay4d0

10:29 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Jay4d0. Show Details Hide Details

surely it should be done on pixel density instead of just screen inches size.

also where are all the android tablets? all a manufacturer has to do is make an ipad look-a-like with stock 2.2 android and you have a flash and everything-you-want-to-do-on-a-tablet device as flash whould be a major killer feature, 4oD, itvplayer instantly works, then when 3.0 released it should be a quick update.

Score:

Name withheld

Jay4d0

11:09 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Jay4d0. Show Details Hide Details

@Soul: yes you would still have to wait for HTC to add the 'drivers' so the OS could work with the phone, but it should only take a fraction of the time compared to the time it takes to skin it with sense, the same applies for all manufacturers the drivers dont come built in android like they do on windows

Score:

Name withheld

Runadumb

11:24 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Runadumb. Show Details Hide Details

Score:

Name withheld

Runadumb

11:29 AM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Runadumb. Show Details Hide Details

Oh actually I'm all for This. I agree completely with high minimum specs. This is one of the things I think Microsoft got Right with windows phone 7 (rip kin). Fragmentation is a problem but if they have to cut

their loses I agree they should do it now. Froyo is still

fantastic and it could be kept alive for a while yet with

lower end devices. Saving 3 for high end means better

games (thats not hard on android) and better software all round. I agree with the above poster regarding pixel density instead if screen size though.

I'm surprised we will see devices this year. Although gingerbread was always rumoured to be announced this year I wasn't expecting the nexus 2 (or equivalent) till January.

All in all the right direction for android in my opinion.

Score:

Name withheld

drdark

12:49 PM on 1 July, 2010

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore drdark. Show Details Hide Details

@Kaurisol: "Much as I hate to say it, Apple do keep OS fragmentation to a minimum - albeit with a limited range of phones."

Why even bother mentioning Apple? They essentially only have 1 phone, and surviving older models of it.

Bringing up Nokia/Symbian/MeeGo or even Windows Mobile would make sense, but there's no need to shoehorn Apple into every damned thread...

P.S. Sorry I went on a bit of a tirade there...

Score:

Please wait while we file your abuse report.

We're sorry. We were unable to report abuse at this time.

We limit the number of reactions an individual user can submit over a given period for quality reasons. You have currently reached that limit. Please try resubmitting your abuse report again later.

Comment is too long. Enter 500 characters or less.