There is overt excitement around the release of the latest Google Operating System, Android 7.0 Nougat. While the search engine giant is rolling out the latest OS for its Nexus lineup, the Google Pixel C and the General Mobile 4G, there are increased speculations that the looming Nexus smartphones will release preloaded with Android 7.1 N as opposed to Android 7.0 N.
Rumors are rife that the next version of the Google OS, Android 7.1 N, is scheduled to come out soon, seemingly together with the HTC-made Nexus Marlin and Nexus Sailfish. Fueling the speculations is evidence shared by an anonymous application developer on Reddit, who unveiled that 115 of its users are now on Android 7.1 Nougat.
The app developer as well posted a screenshot on IMGUR of the stats page for one of the apps to support his assertion. The screenshot revealed 115 installation of Android 7.1 and 4 installations of Android O.
"Noticed these interesting statistics for one of my apps this morning ...115 of my users are already on 7.1 and 4 of them are on Android O (which I'm assuming are Googlers)," shared the developer via Reddit. "I knew 7.1 would be coming sooner than we thought but I'm surprised about Android O though!"
David Ruddock of Android Police as well shared that the upcoming Nexus Marlin and Nexus Sailfish would release with Android 7.1 N out of the box. This would be the first maintenance release for the new OS (the Maintenance Release 1 or MR1).
Nate Benis, the man behind the Nexus Launcher leak, also pointed out that the next Nexus smartphones would be released along with the Android 7.1 N - the MR1. In a post via Google+, Benis said that Google announcement of doing quarterly maintenance releases made him believe the imminent Nexus devices will be launched alongside MR1, possibly around the same time they were in 2015.
Google has already promised to release the Developer preview for Nougat MR1 this year in fall. As a result, the likelihood of the Nexus Marlin and Nexus Sailfish coming with Android 7.1 N seems feasible.
Here is footage for more information on Android N: