What Is Android & What are Its Applications

Android is a mobile operating system (OS) based on Linux kernel and is currently developed by Google. With a user interface based on direct manipulation, Android is primarily designed for touch screen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers with specialized user interfaces for television (TV Android), cars (Android Auto) and watches (Android wear). The operating system uses touch inputs that correspond generally to the real world actions, such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch to manipulate objects on the screen and a virtual keyboard. Despite being primarily designed for touch screen input, has also been used in game consoles, digital cameras and other electronics.

As of 2011, Android has the largest installed base of any mobile operating system and since 2013, also sells their devices more devices with Windows operating system, iOS and Mac combined. From July 2013, Google Play Store has had over 1 million Android apps published, and more than 50 billion apps downloaded. A survey conducted in April-May 2013 developer found that 71% of mobile developers to develop Android. At Google I / O 2014, the company revealed that it had over 1 billion monthly active users of Android (which have been active for 30 days), compared to 538 million in June 2013. The source code of Android is released by Google under open source licenses, but most Android devices send ultimately a combination of open source and owner software. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google supported financially and later he bought in 2005, Android was released in 2007, along with the founding of the open Handset Alliance- a consortium of hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to promoting open standards for mobile devices.

Android is popular among technology companies that require a low cost ready-made and customizable operating system for high-tech devices. The open nature of Android has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts using open source code as a foundation for community-driven projects that add new features for advanced users or to bring to Android devices that have been officially released running other operating systems. The success of the operating system has become a target for patent litigation as part of so-called "smart phone wars" between technology companies.