Thank you Eric Schmidt! While the former Google CEO gave a rather boring MWC keynote, he did manage to slip in a few juicy details about future plans for Android. Specifically, the next version the open source OS will align/combine Gingerbread (phones) and Honeycomb (Tablets), start with an “I”, and be named after a desert — the “Ice Cream/Ice Cream Sandwich update we’ve been hearing about. None of this is surprising really. We’ve heard all of the aforementioned claims in rumors over the last few weeks. But to hear it “officially” adds a new level of excitement and realism to it we think.

Don’t go getting too excited yet for Ice Cream. Android Honeycomb hasn’t even hit public devices yet, so the next version of Android has at least a few months left curing in the freezer. From everything we’ve seen showcased in Android Honeycomb so far, we’re excited x10 for the same features and UI to trickle down to phones.