Ice Cream Sandwich Statue Joins Android Pals on Google Campus

Google may have postponed the debut of Ice Cream Sandwich, the next version of its Android mobile operating system optimized for smartphones, in deference to the passing of Apple’s Steve Jobs. But as the I, Programmer blog discovered this weekend, it looks like somebody forgot to tell the delivery guys not to drop off the latest Android-themed statuary at the search giant’s Mountain View, Calif. campus.

Check out the video below of Googlers installing the Ice Cream Sandwich statue in an area outside of Google’s Building 44 that is rapidly turning into a kind of Candyland. Ice Cream Sandwich last week joined such Android-version commemorating statues as a ginormous doughnut (Android 1.6 Donut), a giant éclair (Android 2.0 Éclair), and a big old cup of frozen yogurt (Android 2.2 Froyo).

Interestingly, the Ice Cream Sandwich statue is the only version statue in the shape of the Android icon itself, although the iconic green robot does have its own statue in the garden as well.

Google and Samsung had been expected to unveil Ice Cream Sandwich on Samsung Nexus Prime smartphone at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during CTIA in San Diego last week. But that Oct. 11 event was cancelled, according to Google, because “we believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing.”

It has been reported that the operating system, which may be dubbed Android 4.0, though that is not entirely clear, will make its debut at an Oct. 27 event in London. Samsung however, has called those rumors “not true whatsoever.”

Google previewed Ice Cream Sandwich at the Google I/O conference in May to the delight of Android developers. Earlier this month, Google chairman Eric Schmidt let it slip at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference that Android 4.0, the next major overhaul to Google’s mobile OS, will be released in “October or November.”

Google CEO Larry Page also made it clear that Ice Cream Sandwich is on its way soon during the company’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts last week.

Google’s new mobile ambitions

A slew of new product announcements will put Apple under more pressure than ever.

Mobile phone manufacturers claim their handsets are designed to last four years – but consumers will be asked to change their phones faster than ever over the next few months as a host of new devices is released onto the market.

Last week, just days before the announcement of Steve Jobs’ death, Apple announced the iPhone 4S, an upgrade rather than a revolution for its world-leading model; two days later HTC announced its new device, focusing on audio performance. Google is soon to unveil its new flagship model, likely to be called the Nexus Prime, and major announcements are expected from the newly resurgent Motorola. The pace of change is dizzying.

One theme, however, emerges clearly: both Google and Microsoft want to respectively maintain and establish their positions alongside Apple as major smartphone powers. Google has numbers on its side, with more than half of all new phones sold now running the company’s Android operating system. But its problem now is to establish the operating system as a real rival to the ease of use the Apple iOS has pioneered.

Google’s next major mobile announcement will see it launch a new version of the Android operating system, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich”. This will be the first that, like Apple’s iOS, provides a unified experience across both tablet devices and mobile phones. The effect, the company hopes, will be to galvanise the app developers who make an OS feel vibrant. Thus far, it’s been Apple that has hogged their attention because iPhone and iPad users remain much more likely to download paid-for apps rather than free ones.