The latest generation of smartphones have been a massive success. One of the big reasons for this is the operating systems in use. Android is the operating system with the biggest market share currently showing the popularity of it as an operating system. According to Techcrunch, Androids represented 79.3% of the smartphones market in an August 2013 report. Primarily Android is currently used on smartphones and tablet devices with a variety of technology giants choosing it as their preferred operating system.
Android’s origins
Originally the Android operating system was developed by the company Android, Inc as a Linux-based operating system. Google chose to buy the company in 2005 to use as their main operating system when they entered the tablet and smartphone market. In 2008 the first Android powered phone was released. When Google bought Android as a company they retained many of the key staff from the original company and at the time there was only speculation on what Google wanted to do with it.
Open Handset Alliance
A key move in the smartphone and operating system market was the introduction of the OHA (Open Handset Alliance). The OHA is a group of companies such as Google, Sony, Samsung, HTC and many more big technology firms which was set up with the aim of allowing a more freedom based operating system which developers could work on for smartphones. An Android based phone was the first product as a result of the OHA.
The Android operating system is the operating system used by the companies who are a part of the OHA. This has led to Android having the largest market share in terms of being the leading operating system for smartphones and tablet computers. This is because Android has been selected as the main operating system for smartphone giants such as HTC, Sony and Samsung.
Reasons for the popularity of the Android Platform
Android has been seen to be a popular operating system due to the easy to use interface and clear and colourful designs that run at a fast rate on modern smartphones. One unique aspect of Android smartphones that Android’s operating system has become known for is the names of each released version. Originally Android started naming its updated versions of Android software after deserts. Names such as Cupcake, Donut and Éclair are examples of version of Android operating systems. With each subsequent version they went in alphabetical order.
One of the reasons many have deemed why the Android operating system has been a success is due to the fact it is part of the OHA and therefore has had a major open source coding scheme allowed for it. This has meant millions of applications have been developed for it offering lots of great apps for users of the Android operating system. Google have published the majority of the coding behind the operating system which has made it easier for coders and developers to work with the operating system.
The majority of modern day tablet computers that we see are run off of the Android operating system since the software is not that varied from that used by smartphones. This has only furthered the Android operating systems popularity.
Android Kitkat – the break from tradition
The last announced version of the Android operating system has been called KitKat (v4.4). Android versions are of course based on treats, the name Kitkat was announced on 3rd September 2013 and was named in conjunction with Nestlé and Hershey.
A life-sized Android Kitkat was part of the marketing campaign.
The name Kitkat breaks the tradition of previous names in that a commercial brand name has not been used before. The version had been called Key Lime Pie for some time but due to the late deal the name was changed to Kitkat.
Google Android’s Director of Global Partnerships John Lagerling commented “this is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal, but rather a fun and unexpected proposition”. It was also cited that Google coders had a regular supply of Kitkat’s at hand to aid their developing efforts!
Nestlé intend to print fifty million plus wrappers with the Android partnership information on, not bad publicity for either party.
Conclusion
When it was first announced the Android operating system had many critics arguing that most phone manufacturers would not want to change a core part of their phone technology; the operating system. Now with the largest market share it is clear to see that the Android operating system is here to stay as a major player in the smartphone market.
