Google has unveiled Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest update to Android that provides a single, unified system across any mobile device.

Google unveiled Ice Cream Sandwich yesterday during its I/O 2011 conference and plans to release it in the fourth quarter. According to the company, the operating system will power tablets and smartphones.

?With Ice Cream Sandwich, you can now have an ecosystem that is bigger than just an app store on your handset ? you can have an Android house with your TV, laptop, ereader and maybe even your microwave on it,? said Michael Morgan, senior analyst mobile devices at ABI Research, New York.

Mountain View, CA-based Google did not respond to a request for comments by press time.

Universal OS is stickier
Since Ice Cream Sandwich can be used across multiple devices, including phones and tablets, it will give developers a larger Android base to develop for.

Devices such as televisions, car systems and even exercise equipment can run via the Android operating system, enabling consumers to share apps and content wherever they go.

?Google would like developers to be able to develop across all of the devices, because otherwise you lose the impact of a mass market platform,? Mr. Morgan said.

The mobile ecosystem would also be good for Google because consumers conceivably have more reason to stay within the Android OS.

?Now that consumers will be able to do more with Android, it becomes stickier since its everywhere you go,? Mr. Morgan said.

However, a universal model does present some challenges.

Getting developers to develop apps for a new environment, such as television, is not a guarantee.

?Just because you bring a marketplace to TV or other places, it doesn?t mean developers will develop for it,? said Josh Martin, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA.

In addition, pricing could be an issue for cross-device apps.

?Getting a developer to develop for all of these environments and potentially charge one price for use on all of them is a business development model that hasn?t been proven yet,? Mr. Martin said.

?This is a challenge that operating systems in general are going to have going forward,? he said.

Additionally, TV can be a tough nut to crack.

?The getting to the TV part, which seems to be a big part of Google?s announcement, has been hard to do,? he said. ?The introduction of an apps marketplace could help the growth of that industry.?

Putting Android on televisions and other devices would also enable Google to collect valuable customer information about their media choices and interactions.

?TV is one of those screens that Google has been left out of,? Mr. Martin said. ?But there are so many people watching TV while using their mobile devices, so getting to both screens is one of the goals here.?