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.
[2] Initially developed by Android Inc, whom Google financially backed and later purchased in 2005,
[9] Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 86
hardware,
software, and
telecommunication companies devoted to advancing
open standards for mobile devices.
[10]
Google releases the Android code as
open-source, under the
Apache License.
[11] The
Android Open Source Project (AOSP), lead by Google, is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android.
[12] Additionally, Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("
apps") that extend the functionality of devices. Developers write primarily in a customized version of
Java,
[13] and apps can be downloaded from online stores such as
Google Play (formerly
Android Market),
the app store run by Google, or third-party sites. In June 2012, there
were more than 600,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated
number of applications downloaded from Google Play was 20 billion.
[14]
The first Android-powered phone was sold in October 2008,
[15] and by the end of 2010 Android had become the world's leading smartphone platform.
[16] It had a worldwide smartphone market share of 59% at the beginning of 2012,
[17] and as of third quarter 2012, there were 500 million devices activated and 1.3 million activations per day.
[1