Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Google today announced the next version of Android, believe it or not, would be called KitKat. Android 4.4, which was till today known as Key Lime Pie, will be the first Android version to be named after a commercial product. Google’s head of Android, Sundar Pichai, also announced today that Android had crossed a billion device activations. This means Android activations grew 100 percent since last September, when Google announced crossing the 500 million device activations mark.
Google says that it came up with the name and confirmed to the BBC that neither it nor Nestle are paying either side anything for using the brand name. Nevertheless, this will be a big marketing coup for Nestle. Google has traditionally named different versions of Android after desserts and has so far announced Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. The next version was internally called Key Lime Pie before John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships realized that not many people would have tasted the dessert and came up with KitKat that is known globally.
The deal was done within 24 hours after Lagerling cold called Nestle’s UK advertising agency last November. The two companies secretly met at MWC this February to chalk out the details. Nestle will be producing more than 50 million KitKat bars with Android branding that will be sold in 19 countries including India. The wrappers had to be printed two months in advance and Nestle managed to keep it a secret. The special bars will also have a contest where buyers will be able to win Google’s Nexus tablets. To announce the partnership, Nestle even released a parody video, spoofing Apple’s Jony Ive talking about the KitKat bar. Watch the video below.
