In August , Google announced Android Device Manager renamed Find My Device in May , [] [] a service that allows users to remotely track, locate, and wipe their Android device, [] [] with an Android app for the service released in December. On October 8, Google announced new Google Play store requirements to combat over-sharing of potentially sensitive information, including call and text logs.
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The issue stems from the fact that many apps request permissions to access user's personal information even if this information is not needed for the app to function and some users unquestionably grant these permissions. Alternatively, a permission might be listed in the app manifest as required as opposed to optional and app would not install unless user grants the permission; user can withdraw any, even required, permission from any app in the device settings after app installation, but few users do this.
Google promised to work with developers and create exceptions if their apps require Phone or SMS permissions for "core app functionality". The new policies enforcement started on January 6, , 90 days after policy announcement on October 8, The API level requirement might combat practice of app developers bypassing some permission screens by specifying early Android versions that had more coarse permission model.
The source code for Android is open-source : it is developed in private by Google, with the source code released publicly when a new version of Android is released. Google publishes most of the code including network and telephony stacks under the non-copyleft Apache License version 2. Associated Linux kernel changes are released under the copyleft GNU General Public License version 2, developed by the Open Handset Alliance , with the source code publicly available at all times. The reason, according to Andy Rubin in an official Android blog post, was because Honeycomb was rushed for production of the Motorola Xoom , [] and they did not want third parties creating a "really bad user experience" by attempting to put onto smartphones a version of Android intended for tablets.
These applications must be licensed from Google by device makers, and can only be shipped on devices which meet its compatibility guidelines and other requirements. Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation have been critical of Android and have recommended the usage of alternatives such as Replicant , because drivers and firmware vital for the proper functioning of Android devices are usually proprietary, and because the Google Play Store application can forcibly install or uninstall applications and, as a result, invite non-free software; although the Free Software Foundation has not found Google to use it for malicious reasons.
Google licenses their Google Mobile Services software, along with Android trademarks, only to hardware manufacturers for devices that meet Google's compatibility standards specified in the Android Compatibility Program document. Moreover, open-source variants of some applications also exclude functions that are present in their non-free versions, such as Photosphere panoramas in Camera, and a Google Now page on the default home screen exclusive to the proprietary version "Google Now Launcher", whose code is embedded within that of the main Google application.
Apps that do not use Google components would also be at a functional disadvantage, as they can only use APIs contained within the OS itself. In March , it was reported that Google had begun to block "uncertified" Android devices from using Google Mobile Services software, and display a warning indicating that "the device manufacturer has preloaded Google apps and services without certification from Google".
Alibaba Group defended the allegations, arguing that the OS was a distinct platform from Android primarily using HTML5 apps , but incorporated portions of Android's platform to allow backwards compatibility with third-party Android software. Indeed, the devices did ship with an application store which offered Android apps; however, the majority of them were pirated.
Android includes a Hardware Abstraction Layer HAL that defines a standard interface for hardware vendors to implement, which enables Android to be agnostic about lower-level driver implementations. Android received a lukewarm reaction when it was unveiled in Although analysts were impressed with the respected technology companies that had partnered with Google to form the Open Handset Alliance, it was unclear whether mobile phone manufacturers would be willing to replace their existing operating systems with Android.
Since then Android has grown to become the most widely used smartphone operating system [] [] and "one of the fastest mobile experiences available". As a result, it has been described by technology website Ars Technica as "practically the default operating system for launching new hardware" for companies without their own mobile platforms. These have been cited as among the main advantages of Android phones over others.
Despite Android's popularity, including an activation rate three times that of iOS, there have been reports that Google has not been able to leverage their other products and web services successfully to turn Android into the money maker that analysts had expected. Android has suffered from "fragmentation", [] a situation where the variety of Android devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently across the ecosystem harder than rival platforms such as iOS where hardware and software varies less.
For example, according to data from OpenSignal in July , there were 11, models of Android device, numerous different screen sizes and eight Android OS versions simultaneously in use, while the large majority of iOS users have upgraded to the latest iteration of that OS. They maintain this forces Android developers to write for the "lowest common denominator" to reach as many users as possible, who have too little incentive to make use of the latest hardware or software features only available on a smaller percentage of devices. Research company Canalys estimated in the second quarter of , that Android had a 2.
By the third quarter of , Gartner estimated that more than half In July , Google said that , Android devices were being activated every day, [] up from , per day in May, [] and more than million devices had been activated [] with 4. Android market share varies by location. In April Android had 1. Android devices account for more than half of smartphone sales in most markets, including the US, while "only in Japan was Apple on top" September—November numbers.
Three billion Android smartphones are estimated to be sold by the end of including previous years. According to Gartner research company, Android-based devices outsold all contenders, every year since According to StatCounter , which tracks only the use for browsing the web, Android is the most popular mobile operating system since August According to StatCounter, Android is most used on mobile in all African countries, and it stated "mobile usage has already overtaken desktop in several countries including India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia", [] with virtually all countries in Africa having done so already except for seven countries, including Egypt , such as Ethiopia and Kenya in which mobile including tablets usage is at According to a January Gartner report, "Android surpassed a billion shipments of devices in , and will continue to grow at a double-digit pace in , with a 26 percent increase year over year.
Gartner expected the whole mobile phone market to "reach two billion units in ", including Android. According to a Statistica 's estimate, Android smartphones had an installed base of 1. In the second quarter of , Android's share of the global smartphone shipment market was According to an April StatCounter report, Android overtook Microsoft Windows to become the most popular operating system for total Internet usage. In September , Google announced that Android had 1.
Despite its success on smartphones, initially Android tablet adoption was slow. Due to the lack of Android tablet-specific applications in , early Android tablets had to make do with existing smartphone applications that were ill-suited to larger screen sizes, whereas the dominance of Apple's iPad was reinforced by the large number of tablet-specific iOS applications.
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This approach, such as with the Dell Streak , failed to gain market traction with consumers as well as damaging the early reputation of Android tablets. An exception was the Amazon Kindle Fire , which relied upon lower pricing as well as access to Amazon's ecosystem of applications and content.
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As of the end of , over It can now be as integral to your mobile portfolio as Apple 's iOS devices are". Android 9. On tablets, Android 5. India at Australia, all Nordic and many other European countries, then in China, and Egypt. As of May [update] , In general, paid Android applications can easily be pirated. In , Google released a tool for validating authorized purchases for use within apps, but developers complained that this was insufficient and trivial to crack.
Google responded that the tool, especially its initial release, was intended as a sample framework for developers to modify and build upon depending on their needs, not as a finished piracy solution. The success of Android has made it a target for patent and copyright litigation between technology companies, both Android and Android phone manufacturers having been involved in numerous patent lawsuits and other legal challenges. On August 12, , Oracle sued Google over claimed infringement of copyrights and patents related to the Java programming language.
They said that Android's Java runtime environment is based on Apache Harmony , a clean room implementation of the Java class libraries, and an independently developed virtual machine called Dalvik.
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In December , Google announced that the next major release of Android Android Nougat would switch to OpenJDK , which is the official open-source implementation of the Java platform, instead of using the now-discontinued Apache Harmony project as its runtime.
Code reflecting this change was also posted to the AOSP source repository. In , FairSearch , a lobbying organization supported by Microsoft, Oracle and others, filed a complaint regarding Android with the European Commission , alleging that its free-of-charge distribution model constituted anti-competitive predatory pricing. On October 16, , Google announced that it would change its distribution model for Google Mobile Services in the EU, since part of its revenues streams for Android which came through use of Google Search and Chrome were now prohibited by the EU's ruling.
Google Search will be licensed separately, with an option to include Google Chrome at no additional cost atop Search. European OEMs are able to bundle third-party alternatives on phones and devices sold to customers, if they so choose. OEMs will no longer be barred from selling any device running incompatible versions of Android in Europe. In addition to lawsuits against Google directly, various proxy wars have been waged against Android indirectly by targeting manufacturers of Android devices, with the effect of discouraging manufacturers from adopting the platform by increasing the costs of bringing an Android device to market.
Google has publicly expressed its frustration for the current patent landscape in the United States, accusing Apple, Oracle and Microsoft of trying to take down Android through patent litigation, rather than innovating and competing with better products and services. Google has developed several variations of Android for specific use cases, including Android Wear, later renamed Wear OS , for wearable devices such as wrist watches, [] [] Android TV for televisions, [] [] and Android Things for smart devices and Internet of things.
The open and customizable nature of Android allows device makers to use it on other electronics as well, including laptops, netbooks , [] [] and desktop computers, [] cameras, [] headphones, [] home automation systems, game consoles, [] media players, [] satellites, [] routers , [] printers , [] payment terminals , [] automated teller machines , [] and robots. In , Google demonstrated "Android Home", a home automation technology which uses Android to control a range of household devices including light switches, power sockets and thermostats.
Google, he said, was thinking more ambitiously and the intention was to use their position as a cloud services provider to bring Google products into customers' homes. Parrot unveiled an Android-based car stereo system known as Asteroid in , [] followed by a successor, the touchscreen-based Asteroid Smart, in In December , one reviewer commented that Android's notification system is "vastly more complete and robust than in most environments" and that Android is "absolutely usable" as one's primary desktop operating system.
The software is available for developers, and was released in The mascot of Android is a green android robot , as related to the software's name. Although it has no official name, the Android team at Google reportedly call it "Bugdroid". It was designed by then-Google graphic designer Irina Blok on November 5, when Android was announced.
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Contrary to reports that she was tasked with a project to create an icon, [] Blok confirmed in an interview that she independently developed it and made it open source. The robot design was initially not presented to Google, but it quickly became commonplace in the Android development team, with various different variations of it created by the developers there who liked the figure, as it was free under a Creative Commons license. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Android disambiguation.
Free and open-source operating system for mobile devices, developed by Google. Android 10 home screen with Pixel Launcher. Apache License 2. See also: Android version history. See also: List of features in Android. See also: Android software development and Google Play. See also: Android hardware requirements. Main article: Usage share of operating systems. Old version. Older version, still maintained. Latest version. Latest preview version. Future release. Further information: Smartphone patent wars and Patent troll. Main article: Oracle v.
Main article: European Union vs. A giant Android mascot at Googleplex in Free and open-source software portal Computer programming portal.
Open Hub. October 25, Archived from the original on December 14, Retrieved December 15, Android Developers Blog.
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