This shouldn’t come as a huge shock, since Google had pretty much already promised that the next major version of Android would be available by the end of the year, but Google chairman Eric Schmidt has now pretty much confirmed that we’ll see Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich in October or November.

I guess that kind of rules out September or December, then.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the code name for the first version of Android that will be designed to run both on tablets and smartphones. Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread is the latest version designed specifically for phones, while Android 3.2 Honeycomb is the latest tablet-only build.

It’s likely that Google will also announce the next-generation Nexus smartphone when Ice Cream Sandwich launches. The HTC Nexus One and Samsung Nexus S are phones designed to showcase Google’s operating system with hardware to support all of the latest features. These are the phones that Google recommends for developers, but they’re also popular with many users because they come with the Android experience exactly as Google designed it, without any carrier or manufacturer customizations. These devices also tend to be first in line for major software updates.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage at the Web 2.0 conference today, holding a phone that looks a lot like the rumored Nexus S phone from Samsung, running Android 2.3. Schmidt says the next-generation operating system will be available within the next few weeks, and he listed a few of the features baked into the OS (and the Nexus S smartphone), including support for Near Field Communication (NFC) and RFID technology lalowing you to make mobile payments from your phone — essentially turning your phone into a credit card.

It’s likely that Gingerbread will be made available first on the Samsung Nexus S phone, which looks set to pick up where the HTC/Google Nexus One left off. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the company starts rolling out updates for the Nexus One soon as well. It’s still the company’s official developer phone.

In related news, Schmidt made it clear that Google sees Android as an operating system designed primarily for touchscreen devices such as phones and eventually tablets, while the company’s upcoming Chrome OS will be aimed primarily at laptops and other computers with keyboards… at least for now.

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There are millions of Google Android smartphone users, with Google reporting that 160,000 new handsets are activated every day. But since Google is giving away the operating system for free, you might be wondering how Google plans to make money from Android.

The most obvious thing Google is doing is creating demand for Google services including search, email, calendar, contact, and other cloud-based apps. The more you use those, the more you’ll be exposed to Google ads — if not on  your mobile device, then the next time you login to your account using a desktop web browser.

But speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggested there might be another revenue stream: subscription services. For instance, if Google launched a service costing just $10 per year that lets you subscribe to premium newspaper content, Schmidt says, it could easily generate $10 billion dollars.

Of course, there is no such Google service right now. And if there were, Google would probably have to split the revenue with newspaper publishers. But you get the idea.

Oh yeah, and Google’s expected to launch a music service for Android users soon. Does anyone really think that Google isn’t going to figure out a way to make money off of the fastest growing smartphone platform around?

via Android Community