Eight years ago, hardly any one was aware of the operating system called Android. Today, more than half public on the globe is using Android in their smartphones or tablets. Android, the smartphone operating system has traveled a beautiful journey from no where to the top, in less than eight years. Let us scan the entire journey right from the first version Android 1.0 Apple Pay through Jelly Bean to now finally, KitKat 4.4.
The Early Years of Android
Android Inc. was found in Palo Alto, California in the October 2003, not disclosing much about what it is it about. It revealed the fact that it was developing a mobile operating system and the focus was on developing the smart OS for the digital cameras. Google acquired Android on August 17, 2005 and since then it has been doing more than well. In those days, Symbian and Windows were the biggest rivals as Apple was yet to be launched.
The first ever Android product by Google was HTC Dream, commercially launched on October 22, 2008. The Google Play Store was first made available to the users on October 28, 2008 with just 50 applications in all. Android gained a popularity as an operating system for smartphones in the year 2010 with the success of Nexus series devices. Later, many new versions of Nexus were launched by the latest Android versions. In the year 2011, According to the reports, Android broke the records and reached to the yearly activation of 250 million products, defeating iOS that had 104.7 million activations. Since then, Google - Apple rivalry has been seen through all these years till date.
After the tremendous growth of Android users, Google kept launching apps and devices and so did Apple. However, the year 2012 was a downfall for Android. According to a research, towards the end of the year 2012, for the individual handset in the U.S. market, Apple gained the market lead with 53 percent of the national sales defeating Android that had 42 percent share of the U.S. market. The app revenue in 2012 for Apple that year was $2.53 billion, while Google Play's revenue was just $1.68 billion.
Android Now
After a year's defeat, Android is back to the number one position this year. Samsung Galaxy S series devices defeated the Apple's new phones. Samsung Galaxy S III outsold iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 and Android won the competition once again. Guess what, 1.3 million Android devices get activated each day! According to the latest research, in the third quarter of the year 2013, Android did 81.9 percent sales of the total smartphones sales suppressing Windows phone OS and iOS.
This is Android's trip from a vague idea to the highest used operating system worldwide, of course through ups and downs, but more of the ups.
The Future of Android
After the hike in the number of Android users seen each day, the future of Android seems to be a bright one. Not just one or two, there are several reasons Android will stick to the top in the list of smartphone operating systems. The perfect looks and best in working has made it rule the smartphone world. The best advantage in Android phones which no other phones have is widgets. Widgets help you to access the important things in an easier and faster way. The number of Android users are increasing as it deals with maximum number of vendors like Samsung, HTC, LG, Lenovo and Sony. Moreover, the price of Android devices is affordable even to the not so high earning people, where as Apple's devices cost too high to afford for all.
Wrapping up
Android devices are constantly updating and new products are constantly emerging. These things are enough to predict that it will continue to be the dominant platform in the tech market at least for few years and it is not going to fade anytime soon.