How Android 4.4 Came To Be Called KitKat

Google’s next Android platform update isn’t going to be called Key Lime Pie, even though the moniker has been in the rumor cycle for well over a year now. Earlier today the company officially announced what the next update is going to be called: Android 4.4 KitKat. That is correct, they’ve named the release after Nestle’s popular chocolate. One might believe that some sort of money might be involved in this deal seeing as how KitKat has now been attached to a platform that powers more than one billion devices around the globe. One couldn’t be more wrong. John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, told the BBC that “this is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal.”

Lagerling added that the idea behind this was to do something “fun and unexpected.” He also revealed that they decided to go with the chocolate late last year as they realized “few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie.” Lagerling said that he made a “cold call” to Nestle’s advertising agency in the UK at the end of November last year and the very next day he was invited to take part in a conference call. Nestle decided to confirm the deal within 24 hours. Nestle’s marketing chief Patrice Bula said that they had decided “within an hour” to go ahead with this partnership. The deal was finalized at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in February. Nestle will now deliver more than 50 million KitKat bars featuring the Android mascot in 19 markets including U.S., UK, Japan, Russia, India and Brazil.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Android 4.4 KitKat, Google