Android is a
mobile operating system (OS) based on the
Linux kernel and currently developed by
Google. With a
user interface based on
direct manipulation, Android is designed primarily for
touchscreen mobile devices such as
smartphones and
tablet computers, with specialized user interfaces for televisions (
Android TV), cars (
Android Auto), and wrist watches (
Android Wear). The OS uses touch inputs that loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping, tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on-screen objects, and a
virtual keyboard. Despite being primarily designed for touchscreen input, it also has been used in
game consoles,
digital cameras, regular PCs (e.g. the HP Slate 21) and other electronics.
As of July 2013, the
Google Play store has had over one million Android applications ("apps") published, and over 50 billion applications downloaded. A developer survey conducted in April–May 2013 found that 71% of mobile developers develop for Android. At
Google I/O 2014, the company revealed that there were over one billion active monthly Android users, up from 538 million in June 2013.As of 2015, Android has the largest
installed base of all general-purpose operating systems.
Android's
source code is released by Google under
open source licenses, although most Android devices ultimately ship with a combination of open source and proprietary software, including proprietary software developed and licensed by Google.Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later bought in 2005,Android was unveiled in 2007, along with the founding of the
Open Handset Alliance—a consortium of
hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing
open standards for mobile devices.
Android is popular with technology companies which require a ready-made, low-cost and customizable operating system for
high-techdevices.Android's open nature has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices which were officially released running other operating systems. The operating system's success has made it a target for patent litigation as part of the so-called "
smartphone wars" between technology companies.
Android, Inc. was founded in
Palo Alto, California in October 2003 by
Andy Rubin (co-founder of
Danger),
Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (once VP at
T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed design and interface development at
WebTV) to develop, in Rubin's words, "smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences".The early intentions of the company were to develop an advanced operating system for
digital cameras. Though, when it was realized that the market for the devices was not large enough, the company diverted its efforts toward producing a smartphone operating system that would rival
Symbian and Microsoft
Windows Mobile. Despite the past accomplishments of the founders and early employees, Android Inc. operated secretly, revealing only that it was working on software for mobile phones.That same year, Rubin ran out of money.
Steve Perlman, a close friend of Rubin, brought him $10,000 in cash in an envelope and refused a stake in the company.
Google acquired Android Inc. on August 17, 2005; key employees of Android Inc., including Rubin, Miner, and White, stayed at the company after the acquisition. Not much was known about Android Inc. at the time, but many assumed that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market with this move. At Google, the team led by Rubin developed a mobile device platform powered by the
Linux kernel. Google marketed the platform to handset makers and
carriers on the promise of providing a flexible, upgradable system. Google had lined up a series of hardware component and software partners and signaled to carriers that it was open to various degrees of cooperation on their part.
Speculation about Google's intention to enter the mobile communications market continued to build through December 2006.An earlier prototype codenamed "Sooner" had a closer resemblance to a
BlackBerry phone, with no touchscreen, and a physical,
QWERTY keyboard, but was later re-engineered to support a touchscreen, to compete with other announced devices such as the 2006
LG Prada and 2007 Apple
iPhone. In September 2007,
InformationWeek covered an
Evalueserve study reporting that Google had filed several patent applications in the area of mobile telephony.
On November 5, 2007, the
Open Handset Alliance, a
consortium of technology companies including Google, device manufacturers such as
HTC,
Sonyand
Samsung, wireless carriers such as
Sprint Nextel and
T-Mobile, and chipset makers such as
Qualcomm and
Texas Instruments, unveiled itself, with a goal to develop
open standards for mobile devices.That day, Android was unveiled as its first product, a mobile device
platform built on the
Linux kernel version 2.6.25.The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the
HTC Dream, released on October 22, 2008.
In 2010, Google launched its
Nexus series of devices – a line of smartphones and tablets running the Android operating system, and built by manufacturing partners. HTC collaborated with Google to release the first Nexus smartphone, the
Nexus One. Google has since updated the series with newer devices, such as the
Nexus 5 phone (made by
LG) and the
Nexus 7 tablet (made by
Asus). Google releases the Nexus phones and tablets to act as their
flagship Android devices, demonstrating Android's latest software and hardware features. Until January 2015, Google offered several
Google Play Edition devices over Google Play, as Google-customized Android phones and tablets that, while not carrying the Google Nexus branding, run an unmodified version of Android.
On March 13, 2013
Larry Page announced in a blog post that Andy Rubin had moved from the Android division to take on new projects at Google. He was replaced by
Sundar Pichai, who also continues his role as the head of Google's Chrome division, which develops
Chrome OS.
Since 2008, Android has seen
numerous updates which have incrementally improved the operating system, adding new features and fixing bugs in previous releases. Each major release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat; for example, version 1.5 "Cupcake" was followed by 1.6 "Donut". Version 4.4.4 "
KitKat" appeared as a security-only update; it was released on June 19, 2014, shortly after 4.4.3 was released. Android 5.0 "
Lollipop" was released on November 14, 2014, introducing "
material design" as a new
design language and one if its key new features; it was followed by two bugfix releases (5.0.1 and 5.0.2).
In 2014, Google launched
Android One, a standardized smartphone, mainly targeting customers in the developing world. Android One smartphones running the latest version of Android (e.g. the latest Android 5.1) close to the stock version of the operating system. As of March 3, 2015, the newest version of the Android operating system, 5.1, is available for selected devices including the Android One series, the
Nexus 6 phablet, and the
Nexus 9 tablet.
From 2010 to 2013,
Hugo Barra served as product spokesperson for the Android team, representing Android at both press conferences and
Google I/O, Google’s annual developer-focused conference. Barra's product involvement included the entire Android ecosystem of software and hardware, including Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and
KitKat operating system launches, the
Nexus 4 and
Nexus 5 smartphones, the
Nexus 7 and
Nexus 10 tablets, and other related products such as
Google Now and
Google Voice Search, Google’s speech recognition product comparable to
Apple’s
Siri.In 2013, Barra left the Android team for Chinese smartphone maker
Xiaomi.
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