Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, developed by Google in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance.
Just like we have Windows operating system for PCs, Android is an operating system for smartphones and tablets which soon will be extended to other products like cars, TVs etc.
Why Android is so popular?
You go to any mobile shop today and you will find majority of smartphones with Android operating system.
Some of the major reasons for its huge popularity are:
1. Android is Free
Android is and will always be free to use. That is one of the biggest reason for its huge popularity and adoption among the phone manufacturers. Why pay a royalty to any company for using the OS when you can get Android for free? This also made possible for the phone manufacturers to come out with smartphones at low cost and still having high end features. You could see many companies like Micromax, Lava , Spice and many others offering low cost smart phones.
Would you buy a normal feature phone when you can get a smartphone at roughly the same price? Probably, NOT. This has in turn benefitted normal feature phone buyers as well because their prices have come down drastically. A WIN WIN situation for all.
2. Android is Open Source and Open for customization
You get the full source code of Android without paying any royalty to Google. This enables the phone manufacturers to customize the OS according to their requirements. With many brains working on the system, newer and newer ideas were incorporated, which in turn helped in making Android a preferred choice.
3. Huge number of Mobile Applications
Android Market created an opportunity for millions of application developers around the globe to show their skills and come up with newer applications for Android phones. Its users therefore have a wide variety of applications to choose from and can customise their phones for a personal experience. It has attracted millions of developers around the world as they can now earn by selling their applications on Android Market.
4. Excellent tools for developers
Google has provided complete toolset for developing applications for free. Applications are usually developed in the Java language using the Android Software Development Kit, but other development tools are available, including a Native Development Kit for applications or extensions in C or C++.
Market Share of Android
Here are IDC's figures for worldwide smartphone unit sales and market share in the second quarter of 2012, by operating system.
— Android (Google Inc.) — 104.8 million units, 68.1 percent share (46.9 percent a year earlier)
— iOS (Apple Inc.'s iPhone) — 26.0 million units, 16.9 percent share (18.8 percent a year earlier)
— BlackBerry (Research in Motion Ltd.) — 7.4 million units, 4.8 percent share (11.5 percent a year earlier)
— Symbian (mostly used by Nokia Corp.) — 6.8 million units, 4.4 percent share (16.9 percent a year earlier)
— Windows (Microsoft Corp.) — 5.4 million units, 3.5 percent share (2.3 percent a year earlier)
— Linux — 3.5 million units, 2.3 percent share (3.0 percent a year earlier)
— Others — 0.1 million units, 0.1 percent share (0.5 percent a year earlier)
Future of Android
As per market research, Android is here to stay atleast till 2015. With android set to come in TVs, cars and other appliances, there is a huge scope for android usage.
Cars - Till now cars are provided with multimedia facilities such as GPS, Bluetooth etc. But in future Android, QNX, Linux operating systems will provide additional facilities in cars. Operating system will control all the things such as nearby garages, air condition, seats suspension, climate control etc. It will also give the information such as the location, details of the accidents that happened nearby and traffic. It will also be possible to know the details of the hotels in the route the car is travelling.
TVs - Televisions are already coming with operating system. Google television is one of the examples. Net can be browsed with Chrome browser that is installed. Applications and multimedia content in Chrome can be utilized as in system. Lenovo and Onida have designed televisions that run with android operating system. All the television channels available in net can be watched. With the new features that will be available. Televisions can be connected to the mobile.
Our life will change drastically in future when most of the products like Car, TV, Refrigerator, Mirror, Ovens will go SMART.
Application developers can start thinking on ideas they would like their home products to have. Lets share our ideas and thoughts about future andriod applications.
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