Gingerbread is Android 2.3, not 3.0

Rumors about Android Gingerbread have staggered everyone with a splash of specification requirements for the compatible smartphones. And they all appear to be true. Because there is still so much to discuss about it, everyone seems to have taken for granted that Gingerbread will evolve into Android 3.0. This, I’m afraid is premature. The man who started the ball rolling - Eldar Murtazin - has never mentioned any version number in his podcast. Recently he has tweeted that Gingerbread will not be the 3.0. So my word is that we are speaking about 2.3 version here. Still, this is not all the news.

First, let’s bring up the specs.

Android 2.3 minimum specification requirements:
• Processor speed: 1GHz
• RAM capacity: 512MB
• Display size: 3.5"

Gingerbread will also bring support for 1280 × 760 display resolution potentially exceeding four inches in physical size, plus we are in for a new native user interface (this could the end for the third-party Sense and Motoblur). Bringing back in mind for a second the fact that Google has acquired BumpTop in early May I am looking forward to see similar UI solutions. Anyhow, with version 2.3 Android is going into a split for hight-end devices (Android 2.3) and low-end devices (2.1, 2.2). Android 2.3 will be released somewhere in mid October with devices coming out in late Q4.