Android is the leading smartphone operating system currently available on the market. Developed by Google and its partners, Android is a free, open-source software platform designed especially for touch screen mobile devices including tablets and smartphones. Android is one of the most powerful open-source mobile platforms that powers thousands of mobile applications. The Android Market has more than 225 million downloads every day, and more than half of all Android users are in Europe. In this article, we will discuss the history of Android, what it can do for you, and what are some of the challenges that it might face in the future.
Android was originally developed by a team of software engineers under the name “Open Handset Alliance”. The Android code is licensed under the GNU General Public License, the same license used to release the Linux operating system. Among the many contributors to the Android code are software companies like Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson. As a member of the Open Handset Alliance, Google gives permission to these companies to include their proprietary software components in the Android system. This is a major contributing factor to the high degree of competition among different handset makers for global Android users. If you want an affordable smartphone with a large variety of customizable features, you should consider an Android phone.
Since the release of Android OS smartphone manufacturers have adopted the platform and several specific features into their devices. To take one example, many devices today run on android phones with the advanced multi-touch features called “multi-touch UI”, which works hand in hand with capacitive buttons for navigation and media functions. This integration further increases the popularity of Android tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and the HTC Desire HD.
However, it was only in the past few years that tablet devices ran on the Android operating system started getting introduced. Developers have found a need for specialized tools to run Android on mobile handsets, especially low-priced Android phones. To take another example, earlier the Galaxy Tab and the HTC Desire HD used their built-in browsers and Android apps, but now users can download Android apps specifically made for tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and the HTC Desire HD to take full advantage of these advanced features. The Android Market is constantly congested with a wide range of applications that you can download for your Android smartphone or tablet device.
Another important factor that influenced the popularity of Android over smartphones and tablets is its open source nature. Android is based on the Linux kernel, which is free software that is distributed to any user who wishes to develop modifications to the kernel and provide it for free. This characteristic has made the Android operating system extremely open for modification by third-party applications. As more users install advanced android applications on their smartphones, developers continue to add new features and functionality to these programs, which further increases the popularity of Android mobile operating systems. In fact, developers charge a low price for their modifications, and users find it free of cost.
Since android devices run on the Linux kernel, there are certain devices that may not be compatible with certain third-party apps. However, this is often not a big issue as android devices are manufactured in large numbers, which should ensure compatibility with most of the android operating system. This is one of the reasons why android devices are so cheap compared to smartphones. Even though android phones do not come with Google’s app store, most manufacturers allow users to download Google apps from the Google play app store. These apps can give you access to all the Google services such as Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube and many more.
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