Android O: How is this not Hiroshi Lockheimer messing with us again?

Oh boy, Hiroshi Lockheimer is tweeting stuff again. Related question, who had Orangina in the Android O betting pool? We sure didn’t. Hiroshi Lockheimer took to Twitter this evening to ask folks about their preferences between three sweet treats. They were Peanut M&Ms, Milk Chocolate M&Ms, and…Orangina?

A quick Google Search reveals that Orangina is a soft drink that hails from France and invented by a Spaniard named Trigo Mirallès in the 1930’s. Google loves multi-cultural stuff like that. In North America, the drink was first introduced by Dr Pepper Snapple Inc under the name Orelia. It reverted back to its original name in the 1980’s. Its ownership and distribution for the rest of the world is a little more complicated. Yeah, we’re good at reading Wikipedia entries when needed.

There’s a lot that jumps out at you from the tweet. Urgent? Why is this urgent, Mr. Lockheimer? We can’t imagine how a debate originated around two chocolate candies and a random, totally unrelated carbonated fruit drink. Never mind that every iteration of that drink starts with the letter O. It’s also during the biggest guessing game season for Android nerds all over the world. Also, have you seen the Wikipedia image for this stuff? See the image below.

Marketing campaigns like that probably wouldn’t do very well these days. In any case, we don’t know how Orangina isn’t the obvious choice for Android O. The colors even match the Android O Easter egg. Orelia would be even better. That’s the kind of hilarious, obscure name that no one would see coming. Perhaps it’s a match made in heaven. Or maybe we’re reading too far into things. When it comes to guessing the next name of Android, all you can really do is throw spaghetti and see what sticks.

We still like Oreo better, but Orangina has a nice ring to it. We don’t engage in conspiracy theories often. However, when prominent (read: any) Google employees start posting random dessert names that coincide with that year’s letter in the middle of the night on Twitter, it’s kind of hard not to, right? To put the final nail in the coffin, it seems like Peanut M&Ms is going to win the poll. I voted for Milk Chocolate. Damn.