Android is one of the two most famous electronic device operating systems on the market today, along with Apple’s iOS. And while the iOS is limited to Apple devices, Android is widely used by many companies like Sony, HTC and Samsung, mainly for smartphones and tablets.
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The history of the system is not that interesting: It was developed in 2003 by the Android Inc. company, founded by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White. The company was later purchased by Google for $50 million in 2005. The first smartphone running with Android was the HTC Dream which was released on October 22, 2008. Since then there have been many updates to the system, the latest one being 4.2.1 Jelly Bean released on November 27, 2012.
There are, however some interesting facts and figures about the Android system which you might find fun and useful to know.
All Android versions are named after a dessert and on top of that the list is in alphabetical order – Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean. Let’s see what the next sweet treat will be.
Did you know that 12 new Android devices are being activated every second – that’s an eye popping million per day!
8% of Android users have switched from iPhone and for 45% Android was their first choice.
73% of Android users are men and 60% of Android users are under 34 years of age.
Android users spend 37% of their time emailing, 21% gaming and 8% using the map and navigation apps.
The Android logo is inspired by a not-so-well-known Atari game called Gauntlet: The Third Encounter which was developed in the 1990s.
The first ever app on the Android Market was the ever-so known Snake game (who hasn’t spent hours playing that).
There are now about 700 000 apps available on Google Play of which more than 75% are free. Given that the Android OS is Open Source, many enthusiastic developers create new apps every day just for recognition rather than profit.
The average rating of all apps available today is about 4.0 (out of a maximum of 5) which means that many of them are of very high quality. There are about 45%, however, that as of yet have not received enough ratings to compete in that category.
The top category for app download is “Entertainment” and the bottom one is “Business”. It appears that people try to keep their work away from themselves when they are on the go.
Currently, the most purchased Android smartphones are of the Samsung Galaxy series, followed by the HTC Desire HD.
Google only developed an interest for Android after the release of the first iPhones by Apple. Until then, the company showed no intention of diving into the mobile phone market but the success of Apple inspired them to try. A successful attempt it was, apparently, as today Android and iOS continually battle for the biggest market share.
What the future will bring to Android other than delicious pastries… we’ll have to wait and see.
Rita Rova is a technology writer for Oz-Coupons.com – the Australian coupon code website and Reviewat8.in that has all the latest discounts listed from top Australian technology stores.