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Android

Android

Android is the most popular operating system.

With a user friendly interface, Android has been designed for touch-screen mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, with specialized interfaces for televisions (Android TV), cars (Android Auto) and wristwatches (Android Wear). The operating system uses touch inputs that correspond to real-world actions such as sliding, tapping, hitting, or pinching to manipulate objects on the screen. Although it was created for the touch screen, it is also used in game consoles or digital cameras.

Android history

Android Corporation Inc. was founded in October 2003 in Palo Alto, California by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White to develop, in Rubin's words, “smarter mobile devices that are much more aware of the owner's location and preferences ". The company's first intentions were to create an advanced operating system for digital cameras, but the market opening for such devices was not large enough, and the company's efforts were redirected to the production of smartphone operating systems to compete with "Symbian" and "Windows Mobile".

Google took over Android Inc. on August 17, 2005, and key employees of Android Inc. including Runbin, Miner and White, remained with the company after the acquisition.

Dan Morill created some of the first mascots for the logo, but the current version of the green Android logo was designed by Irina Blok.

November 5th has remained known as Android's birthday. Android 1.0, the first commercial version of the operating system was released on September 23, 2008. The first commercial device that used the Android operating system was the "HTC Dream" smartphone.

The idea of ​​the names given after various assortments of sweets, for Android versions after 1.5, comes from Google’s project manager, Ryan Gibson. When Google released Android 4.4 KitKat, the company provided an "official" explanation for the way the OS version was named: "Because Android devices make your life sweet. Sweeter every time. That's why each Android version will be named after a dessert".

Every year Android used to update the software and each new version received a dessert name. It started with Cupcake, then Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Beam, Kit Kat, Lollypop and Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo and the last one, Pie.  Each of them also has an associated giant sculpture displayed in front of the Google headquarters.

These names were never announced prior to release, creating huge hype around each release, with people from all over the world trying to guess the name of the next release.

However, the iconic dessert names are disappearing, starting with Android 10, whose name simply becomes Android 10.

As of 2011, Android has the largest installed base of operating systems on mobile devices worldwide, and as of 2013, Android devices outsell "Windows," "iOS" and "MacOS" operating system devices, making it the most popular operating system in the world.