PhoneLon

You may have seen our post yesterday about Android 2.2 Froyo and how the update has begun to reach Nexus One owners, well, the rumour mill has been running in overdrive for Android recently and has now churned out another, juicy rumour: Android 3.0 Gingerbread.

According to a podcast from Eldar Murtazin, Gingerbread brings with it imposed minimum requirements for hardware. These being a 1GHz processor, 512 MB RAM and a 3.5″ diagonal screen (Good news for Desire, Nexus One and Galaxy S owners) which really sets the scene for where Android is heading in the future and pretty much lays to rest any doubt that we’ll soon be seeing phones with 1.5+ GHz processors any time soon, given that it’s been reported that we’ll be getting our teeth sunk into some tasty Gingerbread goodness as early as October.

What will become of phones running a spec lower than this? Well, this is potentially where the problems could start get worse. As you are probably aware, fragmentation is one of the biggest issues currently faced by Google and it’s Android OS, by this we mean the fact that there are several versions of Android currently in active use on the market, making it difficult for developers to roll out applications and updates which are compatible with all devices. Android 2.1 Eclair and 2.2 Froyo have essentially formed what will become the low/mid-range Android OS (Wildfire, X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro), whilst the full shebang (Gingerbread) will be the flagship OS found on tablets and the future high-end smartphones.

Gingerbread is also said to remove the need for proprietary bootloaders/skins such as Sense UI and Timescape offered by HTC and Sony Ericsson, since the new Android will seek to further develop it’s own UI (found on the Nexus One currently) to create a viable User Interface to be found on all future Android 3.0 touting handsets. The universal UI is quite possibly our most anticipated part of this rumour given that essentially, the future of Android lies with it. If, right now, you were to pick up a Samsung Galaxy S, a HTC Desire and a Sony Ericsson X10, the actual navigation, menus and appearance are very different which creates a problem when you consider a product such as the iPhone 4 and it’s incredibly simplistic UI; any owner of an iPhone 3GS could simply pick up an iPhone 4 and use it, there are quite significant differences between the two phones, but the user experience remains the same (albeit tweaked) and this is probably the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Android becoming a dominant force in the mainstream market.

Android Google really does need to get this absolutely spot on, if it is to be in with a chance of actually dethroning the iPhone. Google need to go back to basics, applying the ‘Mum’ test to it’s UI and creating a ’straight-out-of-the-box’ experience that even you’re Mum could use, whilst retaining the deep levels of customisation that the tech-lovers around the world have fallen in love with; which is no easy feat, even for Google. Early suggestions are that the UI will be based on the Gallery app for the Nexus One, offering seamless transitions, speed and considerable ease of use; a very good start and a step in the right direction already.

Gingerbread is said to be due for release in October, of course, we’ll wait for Google’s official statement before getting too excited but in the meantime, lets us know what like from the above and what else you’d like to see from Android 3.0 in the commenst section below.