What is Android?

Android is an open-source mobile platform based on the operation system Linux, developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. The world's first Android-powered phone was announced by T-Mobile on September 23^rd, 2008 with the G1 available to consumers on October 22^nd. The Android source code was made available on 21^st September 2008. Obviously, Android is a fairly new operating system (Windows Mobile appeared in 2003, and Symbian OS 6 was released in 2001) however this does not mean it is inferior. Quite the opposite, as the platform has been built from scratch to work with the newest touch screen devices.

Android Inc. says “it was built to be truly open”, allowing developers to create their own applications and make them available on the Android Market and which can be downloaded direct to the phone. Since there are more than 70,000 apps currently available on Android Market; with Android you are spoilt for choice. Also, being created partly by Google means that Android integrates easily with all of Google’s own products, such as Gmail and Maps.

In addition to the huge array of apps, the open-source nature of the platform means that new technologies and features can quickly be added to the system and taken advantage of. The newest version of Android is V2.2, called Froyo, and from the improvements we can see just how useful this open-source platform is. Announced updates include:

• Up to 5x faster than Android 2.1 (Éclair)
• Dedicated shortcuts on the home screen
• Multiple keyboard languages
• Portable Wi-Fi hotspot capability

So you have a mobile platform which is getting better all the time, with more apps than you could ever need. What else? Well, one of the problems with conventional mobile platforms is that everyone’s looks the same. You can change the colour, maybe change the desktop wallpaper. However, with Android’s open-source system if you’re not happy with something then chances are someone, somewhere, has come up with a fix. A quick search reveals that you can completely change the feel of your system, get new themes or even down to getting a new style of clock on the home screen.

Android say on their website:

“With devices built on the Android Platform, users are able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialler, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favourite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos”.

As you saw in our previous blog, Android is expected to rapidly increase their market share and with the features, apps and advances of Android it is not all that surprising!

Acer Android Smartphones & Archos Android Tablets

Acer Smartphones with Android | Archos 5 Internet Tablet & Archos 7 & 8 Home Tablets | Compare specs Android Acer v HTC Smartphones v Archos Tablets (xls file)

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