Android
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and
other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as
smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known
as the Open Handset Alliance, though its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google.
It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device,
the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008.
Android Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, in October 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner,
Nick Sears, and Chris White. Rubin described the Android project as having "tremendous potential
in developing 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,
and this was the basis of its pitch to investors in April 2004. The company then decided that the
market for cameras was not large enough for its goals, and five months later it had diverted its
efforts and was pitching Android as a handset operating system that would rival Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile.
Rubin had difficulty attracting investors early on, and Android was facing eviction
from its office space. Steve Perlman, a close friend of Rubin,
brought him $10,000 in cash in an envelope, and shortly thereafter wired an undisclosed
amount as seed funding. Perlman refused a stake in the company, and has stated "I did it because
I believed in the thing, and I wanted to help Andy.
Android has a growing selection of third-party applications, which can be acquired by users by downloading
and installing the application's APK (Android application package) file, or by downloading
them using an application store program that allows users to install, update, and remove applications
from their devices. Google Play Store is the primary application store installed on Android devices
that comply with Google's compatibility requirements and license the Google Mobile Services software.
Google Play Store allows users to browse, download and update applications published by
Google and third-party developers; as of January 2021, there are more than three million applications available
for Android in Play Store. As of July 2013, 50 billion application installations had been performed.
Some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Google Play application purchases,
where the cost of the application is added to the user's monthly bill.
As of May 2017, there are over one billion active users a month for Gmail, Android, Chrome, Google Play and Maps.
Due to the open nature of Android, a number of third-party application marketplaces also exist for Android,
either to provide a substitute for devices that are not allowed to ship with Google Play Store,
provide applications that cannot be offered on Google Play Store due to policy violations, or for other reasons.
Examples of these third-party stores have included the Amazon Appstore, GetJar, and SlideMe.
F-Droid, another alternative marketplace, seeks to only provide applications that are distributed
under free and open source licenses.
In October 2020, Google removed several Android applications from Play Store,
as they were identified breaching its data collection rules.
The firm was informed by International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC) that apps
for children like Number Coloring, Princess Salon and Cats & Cosplay, with collective
downloads of 20 million, were violating Google's policies.
At the Windows 11 announcement event in June 2021, Microsoft showcased the new
Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) that will enable support for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and
will allow users to run Android apps on their Windows desktop.
Android is developed by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released,
at which point the source code is made available to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP),
an open source initiative led by Google. The first source code
release happened as part of the initial release in 2007.
All releases are under the Apache License.
The AOSP code can be found with minimal modifications on select devices, mainly the former Nexus and current
Android One series of devices. However, most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
customize the source code to run on their hardware.
Android's source code does not contain the device drivers, often proprietary, that are needed for
certain hardware components, and does not contain the source code of Google Play Services,
which many apps depend on. As a result, most Android devices, including Google's own, ship with a
combination of free and open source and proprietary software, with the software required for accessing.
Google services falling into the latter category.[citation needed] In response to this, there are some projects
that build complete operating systems based on AOSP as free software,
the first being CyanogenMod (see section Open-source community below).
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