The Droid that changed the World!

Android is a word which has become so popular in the past decade that even a person with the least technical knowledge will be able to tell you that it is a mobile operating system. Its simple interface designed for touchscreen devices is based on gestures like pinching, tapping and swiping (which you are probably doing while reading this if you’re using a smartphone ;)) which make it quite user-friendly.

Let us learn a few interesting facts about this widely used operating system.

The word droid means a robot. Android means a robot with human appearance. The symbol of the Android operating system clearly shows this.

Android was developed by Android Inc. which was founded in October 2003. It was acquired by Google in 2005 for a sum of $50 million.
The first commercially available smartphone running on Android was the HTC Dream, also known as T-Mobile G1, announced on September 23, 2008.

It neither had a virtual keyboard nor a 3.5 mm headset jack!

Google has released 24 versions of the Android operating system since 2008 and continues to make substantial investments to develop, grow, and improve the OS.
Google Maps calculates traffic by tracking how fast Android devices are moving on the road.

By being an open-source platform, Android’s source code is available for anyone to view, download, modify, enhance, and redistribute without requiring any sort of fees, royalties, or other costs.
Initially, the software was developed as a platform for digital cameras. The focus later shifted to smartphones as the developers saw potential here.
About 81.7% of the smartphones sold in the fourth quarter of 2016 run on Android.
As of February 2017, the number of Android devices in the world is estimated to be over 1.6 billion!
One of the best features of Android is the number of apps in its app store Google Play. It has about 2.8 billion apps, most of which are free.
The names of all the versions of Android follow an alphabetical order and except Android 1.0 and 1.1, all the others are named after sweet treats.

Android Astro (Android 1.0):