When talking about Android I’m not talking about science fiction robots that walk and talk like humans. It is the new cell phone and tablet operating system that is taking the world by storm. Android is an Open Source operating system that was founded in 2003 and then purchased by Google in 2005 and developed by them and other members of the Open Handset Alliance. The first Android phone came out in late 2008 and took the market by storm. The point of the Android platform was to give the user more options, better reliability and to directly compete with the Apple iPhone.

Since Androids inception, it has been developed and tweaked to be able to run on various other devices. The Android operating system can be found on netbooks and tablets as well as cell phones. With Android being owned by Google, it gives the operating system more leverage to produce more mobile applications. Android is an Open Source operating system which allows multiple different companies and users to contribute to it’s development. This gives the software more power as it has the collective minds of the whole world, instead of just Google employees.

Android is currently on it’s 6 version of the operating system with version 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, out in 2011. Some people wonder if Google is able to compete with Apple in the cellphone and tablet markets. Well, in the fourth quarter of 2010, Android became the world’s best-selling cellphone operating system. How is that for a start? With 2011 well under way, Apple will certainly have some compition on it’s hands. And it comes in the form of Anroid.