In what might be the most delicious marketing and branding strategy since Manchester United's official tomato juice sponsor, American tech giant Google have announced the latest version of their Android operating system will be called KitKat.

The 4.4 incarnation of the mobile operating system had been unofficially codenamed as Key Lime Pie, following previous popular food-based instalments Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

But this new commercial branding exercise, released next month, is unprecedented.  Android devices currently make up almost 80% of the smartphone market, with over one million new devices are activated every day.

KitKat"This is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal," John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, said in an interview with the BBC.

"We realised that very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie. One of the snacks that we keep in our kitchen for late-night coding are KitKats. And someone said: 'Hey, why don't we call the release KitKat?'

"We didn't even know which company controlled the name, and we thought that [the choice] would be difficult. But then we thought well why not, and we decided to reach out to the Nestle folks."

The Swiss confectioner will offer the chance for KitKat consumers to win Android tablets in 50 million special packs.

Sundar Pichai, head of Android, tweeted the below picture from outside their Californian headquarters.