Concept in Definition ABC

It is still curious that one of Google's greatest successes is not the result of an initiative born within the company but that, like YouTube, it resulted from the acquisition of an external company.

Android was founded by the eponymous company, which Google would later acquire, integrating into its structure some of its founders, such as Andy Rubin, who has since progressed within the Google

And, oddly enough given the use we make today of this operating system, the original idea of ​​the creators of Android was that of an advanced operating system for cameras digital (paradoxically, Android has ended up equipping the odd camera, specifically from the brand Samsung).

Seeing that this market was very small and with few possibilities, the company that created Android turned to "attack" the incipient sector of smartphones to do it competence to Symbian, Palm OS and Windows Mobile.

Google saw a tool of the future to cement its global dominance in the technological field and, in 2005 (two years before the

presentation of the first iPhone), acquired Android Inc for 50 million dollars, a real bargain seen in what it has become afterwards.

Already within Google, Android grew as a variant of Linux, of which it used - and uses - the same kernel, as well as certain graphical foundations of the GNOME environment for the user interface.

Google also decided that its system should have community coverage open source and, for this reason, it surrounded itself with several manufacturers, including HTC (which would ultimately be the protagonist by launching the first Android terminal on the market), Sony or Samsung.

These and other companies were looking for an alternative to Symbian, the system of majority use and which by then was already under full control of Nokia, which did what it wanted with it.

Nokia's rudeness to companies that used Symbian, forcing them to accept the conditions it imposed for the software platform, led them to look for an alternative, which opened the doors to Android wide pair

Google offered support to these manufacturers of terminals and encouraged the creation of software but, in addition, it still offered them something more important: the possibility of differentiating itself by customizing the operating system, something that Symbian was less and less of permeable.

Thus, while historically Sony had used the UIQ interface, once Symbian was in the hands of Nokia, the latter forced the The standard interface was the S60, thus leaving the Japanese manufacturer operating with an environment with which it neither felt comfortable nor identified.

So it was Nokia who paved the way for Android.

In October 2008, when the iPhone had been presented a few months ago, the HTC Dream was commercially launched, the first terminal in history with Android

I remember that terminal from the 2009 Mobile World Congress edition, and then it seemed very different to what it is now: a rough environment and little responsive, which did not offer many benefits and it had practically no software.

On comparison, the iPhone had many bodies of advantage.

Among the milestones achieved by Android we can mention:

• The Nexus One, with which the Nexus saga of official Google terminals began, which continues today.
• The Samsung Galaxy S and, above all, the S II, with which the dynasty began that is currently the great reference in the field of terminals with the green robot operating system.
• The growth of HTC and its conversion into one of the benchmark brands in the mobile phone scene, before Samsung swept its Galaxy S and S II.
• The growth and positioning of LG as one of the reference brands in the market, despite the impulse of Samsung, its great rival.

Despite the efforts of manufacturers to create a true iPhone killer, that is, a terminal that with a single model manages to unseat Apple's iPhone in sales and as the great reference, this has not been possible even today.

Samsung sells more phones than Apple, but that only if we take into account the sum of all its models, which are many.

With the diversification of iPhone models, this concept has lost much of its weight.

Google's operating system was also well accepted by operators

Since Apple imposed leonine conditions on them with the iPhone, a terminal that enjoyed a excellent reception among the public and that, with each new generation, has been breaking records of sales.

In this way, the operators have been able to diversify their Catalogue of terminals to offer to their subscribers.

Android has ended up completely overwhelming the environment of smartphones and even that of tablets to go on to equip other devices

As is the case with smart TVs or set-top boxes, cars and even computers.

Thanks to your code source is available for various hardware platforms such as ARM (predominant in the mobile devices), MIPS and x86, we have it available for a wide variety of types of devices.

In the case of computers, the favorites for their use are hybrid laptops, that is, those that can also act as tablets, either by flipping the screen on its keyboard, either by separating it by means of an anchoring system.

However, we can use it even in a computer desktop thanks to initiatives such as the open project Android-x86, on the basis of which Remix OS is built.

Before it, Android has a bright present and a promising future.

Photos: Fotolia - night / tawesit

Themes on Android