Android, also known as Droid, is a next-generation mobile phone operating system. The OS has been developed by Google and is currently the most widespread operating system for smartphones in the world, used by more than 33% of the market. Android also runs on tablets developed by Google Inc. as well.

The purchase of Android by Google occurred six years ago, in 2005, and the first time it was distributed was in November 2007. The inauguration was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, which is a consortium of 80 IT companies that work for mobile devices. Improvements in phones. Most of the code for Android was released by Google under the Apache license, making Android licensed as free software.

The operating system is based on the Linux kernel and is written with C language middleware, libraries and APIs, and also includes Java compatible libraries. Like the other very popular operating system on the market, Apple’s iOS, Android has a large database of third-party applications developed by independent developers or companies, most of them written in Java. Currently, there are more than 250,000 applications available on the Android Market managed by Google. The applications can also be downloaded from other sites, but it is recommended to use the official market versions of the operating system.

Android is right now the most popular and best-selling smartphone platform in the world, according to Canalys and comScore. Google’s operating system was the best-selling operating system in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Since its original release, several updates have been made for Android. Each version of Android has a code and a nickname, and the most recent versions are: 2.0 Eclair, 2.1 Eclair, 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.0 Honeycomb, 3.1 Honeycomb and 3.2 Honeycomb. Version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be released in Q4 2011, and is currently in the development and testing process.

Android is primarily powered by ARM architecture hardware. The Android-x86 project offers support for x86 and Google TV uses a special version of Android, which also works on x86. The first smartphone to use Android was HTC Dream, launched in October 2008. Google collaborated with HTC for its first Android device, Google Nexus One, while the 2010 version was made in collaboration with Samsung: Google Nexus S.

Although it works on the Linux kernel, Android had some security issues over time. In August 2010, an SMS Trojan infected a large number of devices, while in March 2011 Google found 58 malicious applications on the Android Market, which were downloaded to around 260,000 devices. Most of the applications hid Trojans and infected many devices. The latest study conducted in August 2011 indicated that around half a million Android users were infected by malware in the first half of 2011.

However, Android is still one of the most popular operating systems in the world, and the only competitor, Apple’s iOS, is still quite far in the ranks.