Google has revealed that the next version of Android will be named Kit Kat, rather than the anticipated Key Lime Pie. We’re fans of the new name (Key Lime Pie was a very US-centric branding for starters), but it’s already created one huge potential source of confusion: how to correctly spell it.
Google’s own announcement page (pictured above) demonstrates the problem. In the body cop, ‘Kitkat’ is one word with no K in the middle. In the headline, ‘KitKat’ is presented as a single word with two capital Ks. Neither is actually correct.
Searches of trademark registries show that the registered name is actually ‘Kit Kat’ as two words. That’s also reflected on the official Kit Kat site, which has been jokily updated to reflect Google’s new name, as you can see in the photo below:
So it’s definitely two words. Google needs to get this right. It does appear correctly at the bottom of Google’s Kit Kat page, but if Google can’t stay on brand, mistakes are going to be rife elsewhere. The fact there’s no an evident space in the logo on Kit Kat bars themselves is definitely one source of confusion, but on this matter, we’ll stick with the trademark evidence, since logos don’t always accurately reflect spelling.
According to the BBC, Google isn’t paying to use the name, despite it being a trademark. No doubt owner Nestle figured all the free publicity was well worth it.
All Android versions have been named after desserts, and the two most recent (Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean) have been multi-word names. It’s a pity the latest one seems destined to produce a lot of inaccurate variants. No word on the release date for the actual software yet.
Comments
23 responses to “Why Android Kit Kat Is Going To Confuse People”
If you recheck the page there is a competition from Kit Kat there which they have spelled with the space in the middle… while not changing their spelling. So I think that they are happy with it for now.
The link goes to hersheys Kit Kat site…. which has logos spelled KitKat and text showing Kit Kat. I think they’re all right.
I find it interesting that the writer of this article finds the issue with the latest Android name to be spelling. In my opinion the fact that they are branding Android in a cross promotional way has my eyebrows raised a lot higher than the spelling of a chocolate brand. I think this is a dangerous precedence that Google has set.
Ironically it goes well with Googles main revenue stream: advertising
OS 10.7 Big Mac
I loled, except we already have a name for 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, so that would have to be 10.10 at least. 🙂
Windows 8.1 Pepsi Blue
Everytime you click something you get the sound of a can of Pepsi being opened…….. ugh.
reports have it no money or anything has changed hands here, its simple google needed a better name the key lime pie and kit kat is a global “dessert/sweet” name so it made sense, of course the cross promotion is a huge bonus but i dont think you have to worry about multi million dollar deals being made to name every update and version of anything major, we wont be seeing ios8coke anytime soon
Dangerous precedent? How so?
Ok, you’re right – dangerous may be a little too paranoid but I still think this is at best an unfortunate precedence that could get worse.
It’s not branded in a cross-promotional way, they simply decided to use the name because they wanted to, so it’s actually not “branded” at all. Nestle gave permission for the use of the name and image and are capitalising on that in their own advertising.
So the only ones doing a cross-promotion are Nestle for Android, not the other way around.
Are you kidding? Google naming the most popular mobile OS in the world with a copyrighted brand name isn’t promotional? Regardless of if any money has changed hands this is still cross promotional. I hadn’t even thought about KitKat for years until yesterday, so if this isn’t advertising then I don’t know what is. Add to that Google has provided Nestle with Nexus devices to give away and KitKat is branding chocolate wrappers with the Android logo.
It was not a cross-promotional exercise though- this is what all the articles are telling us. They’re also telling us that Nestle is simply taking advantage of the fact that Google decided to use the name.
It LOOKS indistinguishable from a cross-promotional deal though, but one key fact should tell you that it isn’t: Nestle will get by far the best out of this because it’ll put their brand onto the global media as well as blogs and twitter in all sorts of ways for at least a year to come. At least- and they’re not paying any money for that at all.
It’s like you think cross-promotional is only cross-promotional if the benefits are spread 50/50…. Regardless of who benefits more this is cross-promotional, there is no other way to describe it.
Whatever. If I respond to this properly I’ll just be repeating myself.
That make no sense, nothing you have said explains how this thing you say in your own words “looks cross-promotional” magically isn’t cross-promotional.
OK, I’ll reiterate then:
Going by the information in the press, this was something Google initiated out of their own caprice, they’re not getting anything out of it.
This will improve the the market recognition of the Nestle Kitkat brand though, as a side effect of Google’s OS naming.
A cross promotional marketing deal is a highly structured affair and highly reciprocal. If this was such a case Nestle would have approached Google, paid across a great deal of money, and then the process would begin. Instead what you have is basically a massive corporate freebee.
ok so this is not cross-promotional ?: http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/522dadcf69bedd8a6022b6b4/how-google-made-that-giant-kit-kat-android-statue-in-front-of-its-hq.jpg
While I’m normally a big spelling nazi, does it really matter whether this is spelled as one word or two?
My RSS reader shows the first paragraph of articles. By the time I’d finished it, there was absolutely no doubt about who wrote this article.
does this really have anything to do with the android version, seems like this is kit kat’s branding problem in general, know one really cared if there was a space or not before and a google search for either will net you a win
Key Lime Pie is far far far more delicious than Kit Kats. That said, no tech product is good enough to deserve that name, especially not an OS.
Android 20: Sponsored by Coke
I don’t care about the name, I just care about when and what!
“In the body cop, ‘Kitkat’ is one word with no K in the middle.”
Should this say: ” In the body copY, ‘Kitkat’ is one word with no SPACE in the middle.”
I was under the impression that Key Lime Pie was the codename for v5.0 whereas this seems to be v4.4 … so perhaps both names will be used after all.
P.S: Hershey licence the name from Nestle … unsurprisingly the US product tastes plastic and completely different to the UK/AU version. Being sad, I can still remember a time when Kit Kats were made by Rowntrees.
KitKat promotion does not run in Australia, so who cares!?