Android KitKat? Why not Ladoo next, ask Indian techs

New York - When Google announced that the next version of Android was to be called KitKat there were cries of disbelief within the tech community. Now a group of 500 Indian tech start-ups have banded together to launch a campaign to convince Google that the next version of Android should be called Ladoo a popular round Indian sweet.

When news of the KitKat label came out, many felt that Google had sold out its principles by partnering with Nestlé and naming its software, which is the heart of all Android smartphones and tablets, after the world's most popular chocolate confection.

The company had previously intended to call version 4.4 Key Lime Pie but had a change of heart in the 11th hour when it decided too few people outside North America knew what a Key Lime Pie was or how it tasted.

The group of Indian start-ups intends to mail samples of the Ladoo confection to Google in the hopes of sweetening the deal.

As it says on the campaign site: "We are committed to see a version of Android that is dedicated after an Indian sweet. With enough advance notice this time, we request you to name the next version of Android as LADOO. We love Ladoo, and we're sure you will too! So, to make this deal sweeter, we are sending your team a box of ladoos very soon."

The same companies launched a similar campaign last year to try to get Google to call version 4.4 of the software KajuKatli another popular Indian sweet and are hoping that this time they are going to have more success.

Unlike Apple's smartphone operating system, which retains the same name (iOS) but with an appended number for each new version, each build of Android is named after a sweet or other confection, based on the subsequent letter of the alphabet.

As a result, past versions of the operating system have been called Doughnut, E{aac}clair, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.