Google shocked Android fans earlier today when it announced the next step for its mobile operating system: Android 4.4 KitKat, without revealing too many details as to why the OS will soon have a name that sounds very much like Nestle’s KitKat.
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We wondered whether the name choice was beneficial for Google or not, but then we learned thanks to a BBC story that the KitKat move wasn’t a rushed action from the Search giant meant to shock the mobile audience on this particular day.
Instead Google was following a well-established – and very secret – plan dating back to November 2012, when officials from the two companies first talked about the idea.
However, it was at this year’s Barcelona-, Spain, based Mobile World Congress edition that Nestle and Google met to finalize the deal.
According to the publication, Google considered the name of a popular candy owned by Nestle – starting with a “K” to follow Jelly Bean – since last year as the name of Google’s next-gen mobile OS because it had a stronger brand that Key Lime Pie, a dessert that doesn’t have as many fans.
Interestingly, it started as a “cold call” from Google’s John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, to Nestle’s UK ad agency. The Swiss company then followed through with a conference call, and the name was decided “within an hour.”
Best of all, this is a no-money deal, meaning that neither side is paying the other in order to enjoy this new “coolness by association” status – although the deal comes with its share of risk for both parties, as KitKat will tie Google and Nestle for better and for worse.