What is Android OS

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What is Android OS

If you are using one of today’s many smartphones, you may have already heard of Android. Android is an operating system for cell phones, but also for tablet computers and netbooks.

Android Inc was purchased by Google and it has over 70,000 apps available, which makes it the second most popular mobile development environment.

Before Google purchased Android, it was a small startup company in Palo Alto, California. Its co-founders were Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White. Android was a little known company that made software for phones – that was until rumors started going around regarding Google’s desire to purchase it.

Once Google got a hold of the company, it wasn’t long before other companies wanted a piece of the action. By December of 2008, it was announced that 14 new members would be joining the Android project, including PacketVideo, ARM Holdings, Atheros Communications, Asustek Computer Inc, Garmin Ltd, Softbank, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba Corp, and Vodafone Group Plc.

Since the purchase, Android has been available as open source since October 2008. Google opened the entire source code (including network and telephony stacks) under an Apache License.  With the Apache License, vendors can add proprietary extensions without submitting those back to the open source community.

Although the operating system is popular, it didn’t come without its problems in the beginning. Right off, the company had to release many updates. Users also complained that the system lacked documentation as well and an inadequate QA infrastructure and no public issue-tracking system.

Working on its fixes, Android moved forward building trust with its users along with what the user really likes – more applications. Google jumped in to, developing its own applications for the system. Google applications include:   Google Voice, Sky Map for watching stars, Finance for their finance service, Maps Editor for their MyMaps service, Places Directory for their Local Search, Google Goggles that searches by image, Gesture Search for using finger written letters and numbers to search the contents of the phone, Google Translate, Google Shopper, Listen for podcasts and My Tracks, a jogging application.

In mid August 2010 Google launched “Voice Actions for Android“. The application listens to users voice commands and does actions like search, writing text message, email or call a friend. It also allows for writing text directly by speaking to the phone.

With the growing popularity of Android and the number of handsets available, third party developers quickly wanted to be a part of its system.  Applications that have become available include Shazam, Doodle Jump and WeatherBug.

Now, as of July 2010, the Android Marketplace had over 70,000 applications, with over 1 billion downloads.

While Android holds only a 2.8% share of the worldwide smartphone market, in May 2010, Android’s first quarter US sales surpassed that of the rival iPhone platform. Will they eventually grab the smartphone industry’s biggest share? We shall see.

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