Growth of Android Phones

Android is an operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance controlled by Google, for mobile gadgets such as tablet computers and smartphones.

Android Inc., was the initial developer of Android and it was purchased by Google on August 17 2005. The Open Handset Alliance, which is a consortium of many software, hardware and telecommunication companies, was then formed and the Android operating system was distributed on November 5 2007. Since then Android phones have grown by leaps and bounds and steadily captured the mobile market.

Most of the Android code was released by Google under the Apache license which is a free software license. The functionality of the Android devices is extended by the large number of apps that are developed by a community of developers maintained by Android.

As of October 2011, there were more than 300,000 Android apps that are available for download and the number has been ever increasing. The number of apps that were downloaded has been known to exceed 10 billion. Such apps can be downloaded from the Android Market that is run by Google or from third-party sites.

Android operating system has had a number of updates since the original release, and each version had a new feature or fixed a problem with an older version. The latest version of the operating system is called Ice Cream Sandwich, which has an added feature of facial recognition.

Android phones have all the capabilities of smartphones such as storage, messaging, connectivity, multiple language support, Java support, web browser, media support, multi-touch, streaming media support, Bluetooth, multitasking, video calling, voice based features, screen capture and tethering.

HTC dream was the first phone to run on Android that was commercially available. Since then the phones have added a number of brilliant new features and the latest Samsung Galaxy series of phones are the very best in the market for smartphones.

The growth of Android phones

As per the information provided by Canalys, a research company, Android had a share of 2.8 percent of the worldwide shipments of smartphones as of Q2 2009. By Q4 2010, it had captured 33 percent of the market to top as the best selling smartphone platform. As per Gartner estimates, nearly 52.5 percent of the smartphone market belonged to Android as of Q4 2011.

In February 2010, only 9 percent of the United States smartphone market was held by Android. But as the number of mobile subscribers increased, this number gradually increased to 21.4 percent as of Q3 2010. The U.S. sales of Android surpassed that of iPhone in the first quarter of 2010. iPhone sales grew as well, which indicated that Android was capturing the RIM market in the U.S. Also, it is pointed out that since Android is a multi-carrier and multi-channel operating system, it was able to quickly duplicate the success of Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

As of June 2011, 550, 000 new Android gadgets were being activated on a daily basis and there were around 190 million Android devices in the smartphone market as of October 2011. This grew to 200 million users on November 16 2011.

Google bought Motorola Mobility for US $12.5 billion, on August 2011 thereby strengthening its hold on the market. This led to the opening of the first Android store in Melbourne in December 2011.

Keep in touch with news and latest information on Android phones

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Smart Phones: Free Wifi Calling and Internet With No Service Plan!

If you are a cell phone company market researcher, listen up. There is an unserved market of cell phone users today: those of us who would like the benefit from the internet based apps of a smart phone, via Wifi, without paying the cost of an unnecessary (to us) 3G contract.

After all, Wifi is taking over the world! Those of us on budgets, or who can resolve to unplug ourselves from Facebook when outside hotspots, may prefer to limit our cell phone internet use to when we are in Wifi hotspots, and pocket the contract savings.

But as a quick Google search will reveal, there are not a lot of clear cut answers on how to get Wifi features without the 3G contracts. I've googled "smart phone Wifi no service contract" dozens of times.

In my searching I've found no company openly offering a smart phone, with Wifi capability, that will offer you a talk (and perhaps text plan) without a data package, where the Wifi is left accessible. If I missed it, feel free to link us in that companies direction in the comment section. I did, however, find ONE company offering a great alternative to the data plan issue. See the note at the bottom.

After much searching and taking a small chance I've found an alternative that pleases me. I have turned my new Virgin Mobile Optimus V phone into a Wifi capable device with calling capabilities over Wifi.

Wifi Access

First, out of the box the Optimus V was Wifi capable, without service. The phone prompted me to active, but I just began to tinker instead. No problem. I went to settings, to wireless to network and set up my home Wifi connection.

I also downloaded an app called KeepWifi that keeps me connected to Wifi even when my phone goes into sleep mode. It alerts every time I get a new message on my Gmail or Yahoo account. I love it!

Free Wifi Calling Without a Phone Plan!

Two easy steps:

1) Sign up for a free Google Voice account on your PC. You can even got to pick your phone number!

2) Invest 4.99 in the purchase of GrooVe IP on the Andriod Market, downloaded to your Optimus V.

You are ready to make free phone calls! I've found the call quality to be good. Goodbye magicJack!

So there are limits with this smart phone option I am presenting. You would likely still want to have some level of phone service (landline or cell) with another provider, particularly if you want a mobile phone.

I have a small but very cheap prepaid plan on an entry level Virgin Mobile phone, so that covers me in the rare place where I am not near a landline or at a hotspot. I chose not to port my number from Virgin Mobile to Google Talk (which you can do), as I prefer to keep my main number (which I've had for years) portable.

If I ever chose to get a smart phone plan from Virgin Mobile, there is a 300 minute plan with unlimited text and web for 35.00. Not bad! But for now, I'll pocket the money (that's 420.00 in a year) and enjoy me newly rigged "hybrid" call phone.

*There is a company that is in beta testing now with an amazing smart phone plan that is aimed at Wifi users. I'll post about that next. So big name companies, take note! Consumers, be ready for some evolution in the cell phone plan market!

Lianne Haught

http://takinghalfoff.blogspot.com/

Follow my struggles (failure and success) as an average woman who is becoming half the person she once was- through old fashioned diet and exercise. I welcome you to follow along in my journey and celebrate with me when I reach my goal- to be half the woman I once was and twice as fit!

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Web Hosting for the Mobile Web and Smart Phones

If you analyze the traffic coming to your web site, you will observe that around 20% of the traffic comes from mobile devices. That is a lot of website traffic! There are now more mobile devices like smart phones than desktop PC computers. The number of people that access the internet via their mobile device is growing rapidly. To keep up with the trend, it is useful and important to have a mobile version of your web site to cater to mobile device users.

Smart phones can view most websites via their built-in mobile phone web browser. However, since the size of the mobile screen is small, it can be difficult to navigate a regular site on a mobile device. The layout of a mobile web site is optimized to fit the screen size of a smart phone.

In addition, some smart phones do not support Flash technology. Apple's iPhone is an example of a smart phone that does not work well when visiting a Flash based web site.

It is not difficult to create a mobile website. You can use a ready-made template and change the pictures and text. There are not many pages in a mobile website. If you're using the open source Wordpress content management system, there are multiple free plug-ins you can use to create a mobile friendly version of your site.

Google already has free tools to create mobile websites. You will expect web hosting companies to follow suit and provide tools for biz owners to create mobile websites easily. You will probably also gain access to some ready-made templates to help in the creation of a mobile web site.

If your web site can update from your mobile device, it will be very convenient for webmasters on the move. Imagine that you travel and you can update information about your trip through your mobile phone onto your website. It would be very convenient to be able to share your information in real time.

Mobile websites are going to be necessary as the percentage of web site visitors coming from mobile devices are set to grow. Make sure you provide the best experience for your site visitors by creating a mobile phone friendly site. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts. Most likely your visitors will stay on your web site for a longer time, which will help you reach and even exceed your internet goals.

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