Theme: “Android: The World's Leading
Mobile Platform”
This
day commemorates the 14th anniversary since the CUBIES Game was approved as a
Thesis Proposal during CBG 2006 or officially known as Games of the VIIth
Colympiad. This year’s theme focuses all about android in its role as the
world’s leading mobile platform.
Smartphones
have become quite ubiquitous nowadays, with many people owning one or more?
However, this was not the case several years ago; thus, the explosion of the
smartphone market can be attributed to the release of Android operating system
from Google. It is based on Linux, the open-source operating system responsible
for powering many computers, especially servers and supercomputers.
A. What
is Android?
Google
is known to be one of the most innovative technology companies in the world,
and this fact has been exemplified by the wide array of its products. One of
their flagship products that marked the company’s foray into the smartphone
market is the Android operating system for mobile devices. Before Android hit
the market, the only viable smartphone in the market was the iPhone, made by
Google’s bitter rival, Apple Inc. However, there is a stark difference between
Android and iOS, the operating system that runs on mobile devices: Android is
free software while iOS is proprietary. This in essence means that Android can
be used on any mobile device that supports it, and you can tinker around with
the operating system so that it fits your needs. This is very important because
there are many developers who would like to change certain aspects of the
operating system. The aspect of Android being open-source enabled many mobile
device manufacturers to actually manufacture low-end phones and run Android on
them.
B. Stormy
Beginning and Transition
Actually,
the launch of Android was quite turbulent, marked with a major acquisition by
Google. However, few people are aware of the fact that Android started way
back, in 2003, as a pet project of its creator, Andy Rubin. Back then, the main
motivation for Mr. Rubin was to make mobile software that would power smarter
phones that were able to have a sense of location as well as be aware of user
preferences. Mr. Rubin, being an engineer renowned for tinkering with software
code as well as hardware, partnered with Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White
to found Android Inc. in 2003, which then worked on the first prototype of
Android mobile operating system. This version was based on the Linux kernel,
which is an open-source software that is very powerful. However, the company
kept this project under wraps, but it soon got into trouble. At one point, the
company ran out of money and could not continue with the project; strange
enough, a friend of Mr. Rubin, Steve Perlman, gave him US$10,000 in cash, but
unexpectedly refused to take a share of the company in return. In 2005, there
were loud rumors that Google was about to get into the mobile
industry foray, and that it was interested in both the hardware and software.
Since Mr. Rubin had met the founders of Google at a technology event before,
they were aware of his ongoing project, and they finally brought Android Inc.
and transformed it into a well-funded subsidiary at Google. This marked the
turning point as Rubin, White and Miner came along, and a team of talented
engineers joined them. This now meant that Mr. Rubin and his team would focus
on making Android the top mobile operating system in the world.
But
the road to becoming the dominant mobile phone operating system was not that
smooth. But the point of maturation for Android must have been the formation of
the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of mobile phone companies and carriers
that had the main objective of making open standards for mobile devices. This
enabled Google to run Android on most successful commercial mobile devices, and
the first version available to consumers was shipped in December 2008, running
on HTC Dream phone. From this point on, Google focused on several iterations
that were meant to make Android faster and less cluttered, as well as to make
it run on as many devices as possible. When major handset manufacturers such as
Samsung and LG started running Android on their mobile devices, there was no
way of stopping its rise. Also, the rise in popularity of tablet computers
marked a major milestone for Android, since most manufacturers of affordable
tablet computers, such as HTC and Huawei, ran Android on them. Many more
handset manufacturers trooped to Google’s offices with an aim of getting a
customized version of Android running on the gadgets.
Steve
Jobs, the then CEO of Apple, made a serious allegation that Android was
actually cloned from iOS, and he was quite bitter about this. It is alleged
that he was so infuriated that Google had poached some of the top developers
who had worked on iOS and cloned it to come up with Android that he vowed to
fight it for the rest of his life. This was mainly due to the fact that Android
posed a great threat to the market share of iOS, and the mobile device market
in general. However, this did not deter Google from going ahead and
aggressively marketing Android. Also, getting Android to work on the wide array
of devices it was installed in posed a big challenge in the beginning. This is
because different manufacturers made tablets and smartphones with different
specifications and configurations; however, the open-source nature of Android
one again came to the rescue and allowed the device manufacturers to alter the
nature of Android to fit their devices.
C. The
Rise of Android
Having
withstood the turbulent beginnings, Android started to rise and eat up much of
the mobile operating system market. Having been adopted by many device
manufacturers, Android runs on hundreds of millions of mobile devices, from
high-end smartphones to low-end tablets. Analysts have been remarking how this
operating system has been rising over the years and eating up more market
share. One such analyst, Strategy Analytics, stated that in 2012, 68.4% of
smartphones globally ran on Android. This is a huge market share by any
account, and it is a stark reminder of how Android is changing the smartphone
and tablet market.
D. What
led to the rise of Android?
So,
what really led to the rise of Android in the smartphone and tablet market? One
of the main reasons is the open-source nature of Android. Just five years or so
ago, iOS had the lion share of the market despite the fact that it could only
run on the iPhone and the iPad. This was the case simply because people had no
alternative other than to buy either of these mobile devices so as to use iOS.
However, when Android launched as an open-source product, it allowed many more
handset manufacturers to make smartphones of any price point and run Android on
them. The rise of Android on the global scale has been fueled by
cheap smartphones that are based on the operating system, mainly in the
developing world. Since the iOS comes in the iPhone and iPad, which are quite
costly for most people in the developing world, getting a cheaper smartphone
running on Android has been more than welcome by this part of the world, and
that is why Android has a huge market share on the global level as compared to
the US. This trend is continuing, with more affordable tablet computers hitting
the market in recent months.
E. The
Future of Android
Since
it has risen so fast, analysts have been speculating on the future of Android.
The fact that many more people are getting mobile devices such as smartphones
and tablets is testament that the rise of Android will continue for some while.
Major smartphone companies such as Nokia have been reported to be contemplating
on using Android on their smartphones. If these rumors are true, then
Android will continue gaining a bigger market share of the smartphone market.
Also, the increasing number of Android app developers has proven to be a major
driving force of the Android operating system. Actually, apps have been the
heart of smartphones, since they enable people to use their smartphones for
many purposes, most of which were limited to the personal computer. Getting
varied computing capabilities and power on a smartphone or tablet has proven to
be a big boost as more people are getting smartphones.
Once
again, HAPPY CUBIES DAY!!!
