Google announced it had had already released the source code for Android 4.0.1 which is also known as the Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). The full Android 4.0.1 code is available online through Google.

The release of the Ice Cream Sandwich code is part of Google's ongoing Open Source Project. This helps small and big developers to work on new apps that will be able to work with the new Android ICS. The release of the code also helps in creating current and important updates on existing apps in order to ensure that everything is in good condition on the new OS.

This is the first time that a source code for an Android tablet development has been released to the public as the first one that they developed had too many problems in the system. Google was not able to provide the code for their previous model, the Android 3 which is also known as Android Honeycomb. This left the developers feeling frustrated because they were not able to fully optimize their apps for Android Honeycomb.

Baptiste Queru, an engineer at Google wrote a post in the Android developer Google group and talks about the Android Ice Cream Sandwich as well as mentioning the reason why the former Android Honeycomb was not released in the public. He stated that "This (Android ICS) release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases. However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich."

The release of the source code for the Android ICS also coincides with the release of a device that would be compatible with the said OS. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the smartphone that would initially run the Android ICS. Several devices are also expected to launch with the Android ICS since the code was already released.

For users who have plans to download it, Google recommends that they should have 16GB of RAM in order to make the download process smoother and easer. The Android ICS operating system and download instructions could be accessed here.