The close partnership between Asus and Google has led Asus to hope that it will be the first company to release Google’s rumored next generation Android OS named Jelly Bean (version 5.0).

Asus takes pride in being the first company to provide tablets running Honeycomb (version 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2) and Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4.0). So the Taiwanese tech major is now hoping that it will also be the first company to launch a Jelly Bean powered device.

Asus announced its newest Padfone at Mobile World Congress 2012 held in Barcelona. The device integrates a mobile phone, a tablet and a netbook into a single device running on the latest Android OS, the Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Taiwanese tech firm hopes that its latest Padfone will become highly competitive in the tablet market and once the newest Jelly Bean 5.0 Android is released, it will be the first to launch a device with Jelly Bean integrated in it.

However, Asus is already facing competition, as LG is committed to upgrading its 2012 handset range to the latest Android version whenever it becomes available. So it appears that there will be a bitter struggle between these two companies. The current Android variant, Ice Cream Sandwich, runs on 1% of Android devices and it was first released on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone and on Asus’ Transformer Prime tablet.