Growth of Android Phones

Android is an operating method created by the Open Handset Alliance controlled by Google, for mobile gadgets such as tablet computers and smartphones.

Android Inc., was the initial developer of Android and it was purchased by Google on August 17 2005. The Open Handset Alliance, which is a consortium of various software program, hardware and telecommunication businesses, was then formed and the Android operating method was distributed on November five 2007. Given that then Android phones have grown by leaps and bounds and steadily captured the mobile marketplace.

Most of the Android code was released by Google beneath the Apache license which is a zero cost software license. The functionality of the Android devices is extended by the significant quantity of apps that are created by a community of developers maintained by Android.

As of October 2011, there had been extra than 300,000 Android apps that are offered for download and the quantity has been ever raising. The quantity of apps that had been downloaded has been identified to exceed 10 billion. Such apps can be downloaded from the Android Market place that is run by Google or from third-party websites.

Android operating technique has had a quantity of updates considering the fact that the original release, and every single version had a new function or fixed a challenge with an older version. The most recent version of the operating method is known as Ice Cream Sandwich, which has an added feature of facial recognition.

Android phones have all the capabilities of smartphones such as storage, messaging, connectivity, several language help, Java support, internet browser, media support, multi-touch, streaming media assistance, Bluetooth, multitasking, video calling, voice based functions, screen capture and tethering.

HTC dream was the very first phone to run on Android that was commercially out there. Considering that then the phones have added a number of brilliant new capabilities and the newest Samsung Galaxy series of phones are the especially greatest in the market place for smartphones.

The growth of Android phones

As per the data offered by Canalys, a study firm, Android had a share of two.eight percent of the worldwide shipments of smartphones as of Q2 2009. By Q4 2010, it had captured 33 percent of the market to leading as the best selling smartphone platform. As per Gartner estimates, almost 52.five percent of the smartphone market belonged to Android as of Q4 2011.

In February 2010, only 9 percent of the United States smartphone industry was held by Android. But as the number of mobile subscribers increased, this number steadily elevated to 21.4 percent as of Q3 2010. The U.S. sales of Android surpassed that of iPhone in the 1st quarter of 2010. iPhone sales grew as properly, which indicated that Android was capturing the RIM market in the U.S. Also, it is pointed out that because Android is a multi-carrier and multi-channel operating system, it was in a position to rapidly duplicate the good results of Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

As of June 2011, 550, 000 new Android gadgets had been being activated on a day-to-day basis and there had been about 190 million Android devices in the smartphone industry as of October 2011. This grew to 200 million users on November 16 2011.

Google bought Motorola Mobility for US $12.five billion, on August 2011 thereby strengthening its hold on the market. This led to the opening of the initial Android shop in Melbourne in December 2011.