What is Android ?

Android is a Mobile Operating System, Currently developed and maintained by Google Inc. In days before, java and Symbian operating systems were used by mobile phones. Nokia used its Symbian operating system, while Samsung used its java operating system. Apple used its own closed operating system called "IOS". IOS was used only in Apple's Iphones and Ipads. Apple didn't provide license to other mobile vendors to use their operating system.

Angry Android

This created a need for other mobile companys to create their own operating system, which was a tedious process. At first Android was being developed by Android Inc, which was then bought by Google. Google has created several revolutionary changes in android by integrating its core services like Gmail, Search and Google Maps.

This Integration greatly improve the user experience by easily doing many tasks with an Android smartphone, which was by then possible only by Apple Iphones. Soon, many mobile phones from popular brands like Samsung, Sony, HTC and Micromax started using Android. Android versions are named after popular foods like Ice Cream Sandwich, jelly bean, key lime pie., etc.

The latest version of Android is jelly bean. The next version is key lime pie, a dessert. Key lime pie is said to be a version 5.0, which means there will be a huge updates from its predecessor ICS.

Some of the exiting features of Android are given below.

They provide the most smoothing smartphone experience by supporting capacitive touchscreens, which once Iphone alone supported.

They provide open API for Application developers, thus allowing developers to develop various apps.

Android applications can be downloaded from Google play, which have more than 3000000 Applications to chose from. They are open sourced and so can be edited by anyone and at the same time can be distributed. For instances, HTC provide their own custom lock screen, Widgets., etc and Sony offers their custom user interface and icons.

Almost every company have their own customizations in their version of android. This has been a great advantage for mobile brands, but a disadvantage to Android, which is not able to provide updates to all of its mobiles at once, while Apple can update all their devices at the same time. This facility makes Apple unique and being loved by, privacy lovers who needs them to be protected from latest vulnerabilities.

There is also another disadvantage. Different devices running Android have different configurations like RAM, processor speed., etc. This makes some devices incompatible with some versions of Android. Each devices needs their updates to be customized by the Mobile Company, which will take much time to reach the customer. So Android is said to be less safe than Iphone which is a closed source operating system.

Android brings a huge revenue to google through its online mobile advertising, while application providers also place their ads in their apps, thus indirectly increasing the revenue of Google. Android is currently rated to be better than IOS by users who enjoy the open source mobile platform.