While some Galaxy S3 owners are still without their Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update, most of you will be fairly optimistic that Samsung also provides the Galaxy S3 with an update to Android 4.2 at some point next year. Right now, the Nexus 4 and now the Galaxy Nexus have that honor only in terms of smartphones, with the Nexus 4 certain to get an instant update to the next major version of Android, if that does indeed turn out to be Android 5.0.

As you can imagine, there has been no official word from Google on their next major Android update, or any hints on what the Android 5.0 Google mascot will look like after Jelly Bean. What has happened this week though, is a benchmark apparently showing Android 5.0 in the wild – sending tech enthusiasts and media outlets into overdrive on the possibility of Key Lime Pie arriving earlier than expected.

This benchmark was fairly surprising, as not only did it name tag Android 5.0, it also revealed that the testing device used was a Sony device with a model name of LT30i, which is an unannounced device not mentioned at all by Sony. Having said that, one of Sony’s newest handsets is the LT30p, which is more commonly known as the Xperia T.

As a result, confusion and speculation has begun on why a Sony device is being used to test the next major Android upgrade. One such reasoning could lie in the fact that the device is just being used for testing purposes only, with no intent of actually using the device to run Android 5.0 officially.

The other explanation is a much more exciting one, with early skeptics believing that Sony may be in line to build the next Nexus phone with Google and that they’ll have the honor of carrying Android 5.0 before anyone else in the process. In our opinion, it is all clutching straws at the moment and don’t forget this particular benchmark could be fake anyway.

Moving away from the Sony Nexus speculation though, what do you think your odds are on your current Android handset getting an Android 5.0 update? We would like to assume that the Galaxy Note 2, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus and the Droid DNA are all certain to be getting an update to Key Lime Pie.

Do you have a different device than listed above which you still consider to be a fairly new smartphone?

To put that in context, that means having multiple ‘pure’ Nexus devices with Android 5.0 Jelly Bean installed on each device, obviously giving you much wider choice than previous years. The move has been detailed in a report by the Wall Street Journal and the devices will be available from a selection of different manufacturers and available to buy all from the Google Play store.

You may already be aware that Google is now back in the business of selling smartphones online, with the Galaxy Nexus available to buy off-contract for $399 in the US only. It now looks clear that they are looking to expand on this, and the idea of having multiple Android 5.0 devices on sale at the same time is nothing short of mouthwatering.

Further whispers from WSJ state that this venture could be ready by Thanksgiving this year, i.e Black Friday, which would be a perfect time to unleash such a statement of intent. While the Galaxy Nexus is obviously a great handset, not everyone is happy with it and it looks like Google is looking to offer more options. We could see Jelly Bean devices from Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG all available on the same date at launch – what an exciting prospect that is. If this does indeed come to light, what manufacturer would you opt for and why?

Google is yet to comment on this, but we have a feeling they may now have to – don’t forget that their Nexus tablet is already out in the open and all eyes are on when they’ll decide to release that as well.

Details have been unsurprisingly muted on the next version of Android prior to the MWC event in Barcelona, but this week Google gave away the biggest tease yet that the next version of Android will be titled Jelly Bean, as they had a large glass bowl of Jelly Beans which took center stage at the Google booth.

That news is a pretty big deal in itself, but we have further Jelly Bean clues to share with you as well, as a Google engineer has appeared to confirm that the next version of Android will be available no sooner than November of this year. Considering that Ice Cream Sandwich is still only starting to appear on next Android handsets, it is going to be a somewhat shock if Google already has plans to drop the next major version of Android in 2012.

Take a look at this quote by Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s vice president of engineering in a recent interview that he conducted with ComputerWorld:

”In general, the Android release cadence is one major release a year with some maintenance releases that are substantial still.”

He also reiterated that after Android 4 comes Android 5, so that also seems to point towards the idea of the next Android release moving straight up to Android 5.0, and not repeating the tactics of Android Froyo and Gingerbread which was closely linked together at versions 2.2 and 2.3 respectively. This wouldn’t be a new approach for Google, as before Froyo and Gingerbread, we had Cup Cake and Donut which also revealed a version jump from 1.5 straight up to 2.0.

If that wasn’t enough for you to get exciting about, we even have more whispers from LG, who have apparently said that all 2012 smartphone releases will be foolproof so that if and when Google announce Jelly Bean, the hardware featured in their devices will already be compatible with the new version. We like seeing security like this and it will be good news for those of you who are planning to pick up the recently announced Optimus 4X smartphone, which will feature a quad-core Tegra 3 processor.

[Bowl of Jelly Beans at Google's MWC booth]

What are your thoughts on a 2012 release for Jelly Bean? Are you worried that your current handset may not be compatible for an upgrade to Jelly Bean?