It seems as though talk of the next Android mobile OS, dubbed 5.0 Jelly Bean is stepping up. Although many of us have yet to attain a device with 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich it doesn’t take long to move on and today we have news that Jelly Bean could feature a new Android desktop mode.

We’ve already heard how Jelly Bean may be optimized for tablets and rumors that the new operating system will feature a switchable dual-boot and now there’s news that trackpad gestures may be coming to future Android operating systems. This could be an extension of smartphones or tablets working as a trackpad in dock mode but an alternative is that it could mean Android for laptops and desktops, an intriguing thought.

This news arose from patent filings uncovered by Patently Apple as reported by Android Community and with ARM-based hardware being increasingly used in PC form factor devices, the idea of an Android desktop mode is not implausible. All will hopefully become much clearer when we start to hear more about Jelly Bean and that’s likely to happen at Google’s I/O conference in the summer, where it’s also likely we’ll be hearing more on Google’s Chrome OS.

Ubuntu for Android, using the ARM version of Ubuntu was unveiled earlier this week, aimed at OEM’s rather than consumers, but this is not expected until the second half of 2012. This will mean that a device running Gingerbread will be capable of switching to a full Ubuntu desktop when docked using HDMI. The idea of an Android desktop mode is certainly interesting then and we’d like to hear your thoughts on this Android 5.0 Jelly Bean possibility. Would you like to see an Android desktop mode?