The Android operating system was first developed by Google in 2008 in response to Apple’s iOS, which dominated the smartphone market at the time. Since 2008, the Android OS has proven itself a worthy competitor and officially took over as the market leader in the fourth quarter of 2010. The number of new Android devices being activated each month continues to climb at a staggering rate.

Android has been supported and adopted by several smartphone manufacturers. Companies such as Sony, Samsung and HTC have all built phones designed specifically for the Android system. This has aided Android significantly in finding relatively fast success. Most notably, Samsung has produced several Android flagship models and became the leading manufacturer in the market with respect to unit sales as of the second half of 2011.

Android has undergone a number of updates, most recently aimed at improving the user experience for tablet devices in order to try and gain a foothold in the tablet market that is currently dominated by Apple’s iPad. Via its Android system, Google is also in hot pursuit of Apple when it comes to the sale of apps and the Android Market is now the second-biggest app store in the world after iTunes in terms of available apps.
Photo: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28Betriebssystem%29

• • Google
  • Android smartpones
• • Android tablets
  • Android apps