Everything You Need to Know About Android
Find out about the popularity, the usability and the latest funny commercial involving this open source mobile operating system
by Duncan Kinney
If you’ve heard the term Android being bandied about lately calm down, we have not, as of yet, created a modern day version of Lt. Commander Data. Android is an open source operating system for mobile devices that is managed by the search giant Google. It’s also on track to become the most used mobile OS in the world according to market research firm Gartner. more than 50 per cent of the phones bought in the third quarter came with Android. According to Paid Content,
That growth has been at all other platforms’ expense: the figures indicate that every other smartphone platform has declined in marketshare over a year ago.
Android’s current share of 52 percent is a big gain on last year when it only had 25.3 percent of sales. But as you can see from the table below, Android’s gains are outstripping the growth of the overall smartphone market, which is up by 42 percent to total sales of 115 million units.
Android Vs Apple
With Android swallowing up more and more market share it’s on a collision with the other uber-popular mobile operating system, no not Nokia’s Symbian, Apple’s iOS.
If you’re interested in a head to head, spec to spec battle PCWorld has a very good take comparing the de facto flagship Android device, the Samsung Galaxy SII running the latest version of Android, to the iPhone 4s running iOS 5.
iSheep
The latest commercial from Samsung pushing their Galaxy SII phone takes some funny jabs at Apple, or more specifically at Apple fanboys.
Android Usability
If you’re concerned about the usability of Android against Apple, the usability experts at Spyre Studios have an exhaustive post out comparing the difference between the two operating systems. Even with the exhaustive testing there wasn’t much to separate them.
Regardless, this test shows that with the right hardware and software combination, both of these mobile operating systems can shine, and really which you choose can come down to personal preference, without worrying about a huge gap between the two platforms. Either way, you should be a happy camper.
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