The DroidViews team works day in and day out to bring you the best of the Android world. While we mainly focus on rooting, custom ROMs, how-to tips, and other useful hacks, we also extended our branch and focused more on reviewing apps and games last year. We do all we can to improve your experience with the amazing Android OS, and it is no secret that you love Android as much as we do. We read, we learn, we share – that’s how we work here and it has always been fun.
Although you use Android daily how much do you exactly know about it? This article is aimed towards learning about the history of Android, some amazing facts about it, and some statistics. I hope it will be fun. Let’s get started.
History of Android
In 2003, four technology experts (Andy Rubin, Nick Sears, Chris White, and Rich Miner) joined hands to develop an operating system for mobile devices that will be aware of what is happening around it – be aware of user’s location and personal preferences, to be precise. It was named Android, Inc. and was established in Palo Alto, CA.
Google found the concept interesting and bought Android, Inc. in 2005 and the rest is history. Android is the most popular and most used mobile operating system.
Android Statistics as of January 2016
As per the reports shared in January, Android Froyo (v2.2) is distributed among 0.2% of devices; Android Gingerbread (v2.3.3-2.3.7) is distributed among 3.0% of devices; Android Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0.3-4.0.4) is distributed among 2.7% of devices; Android Jelly Bean (v4.1, 4.2, 4.3) are distributed among 9.0%, 12.2%, and 3.5% of devices respectively; Android KitKat (v4.4) is distributed among 36.1% of devices; Android Lollipop (v5.0, 5.1) is distributed among 16.9% and 15.7 % of devices respectively; and Android Marshmallow (v6.0) is distributed among .7 % of devices.
Facts About Android
- As mentioned above, Google did not create Android OS, it simply bought it.
- Android OS was supposed to be developed for digital cameras instead of mobile devices.
- Android Honeycomb (v3.0) is the only version that never ran on phones. It was developed to run on tablets.
- When the first Android phone, HTC Dream, was launched many critics felt that it would fail miserably.
- The first Android phone had a QWERTY keyboard and not an on-screen keyboard.
- Android 1.0 and 1.1 are the only versions that were not named after desserts.
- All the Android versions are following alphabetical order. Android 1.0 was named Astro, Android 1.1 was named Bender, Android 1.5 was named Cupcake, Android 1.6 was named Donut, Android 2.0 was named Eclair, Android 2.2.x was named Froyo, Android 2.3.x was named Gingerbread, Android 3.0.x was named Honeycomb, Android 4.0.x was named Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.3 was named Jelly Bean, Android 4.4.x was named KitKat, Android 5.0.x was named Lollipop, and Android 6.0.x was named Marshmallow.
- First Android smartwatch was made by Sony in 2010.
