Open-source operating system Google Android has gone from barely registering a market share to becoming the fastest growing mobile platform in the world, capable of mounting a challenge to Nokia for global supremacy.
How has Android managed to achieve such staggering growth in 2010? Here are the top five reasons behind the Android revolution.
5. Anti-Apple sentiment
Some might argue that Android is an iPhone copy. In evidence, they could point to Google's first attempts at a mobile platform, which resembled the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile with a smaller screen and a hardware keyboard. Then Apple changed the face of smartphones in January 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone.
Google deserves credit for recognising the significance of the iPhone. After all, Research In Motion (RIM) and Microsoft both missed it, writing off the iPhone as a toy — which it was at first — and continued with their existing strategies. That oversight was a critical mistake from which both companies are still trying to recover.
In contrast, Google changed its plans and announced the Android OS and the Open Handset Alliance in November 2007. By the time the first Android phone arrived in 2008, Google operating system no longer resembled BlackBerry or Windows Mobile. Instead, it featured a full touchscreen like the iPhone, but with the option of a slide-down hardware keyboard like the one featured on the early T-Mobile G1.
Of course, Apple has continued to innovate and develop the iPhone. And while Android may not be as polished as iOS in some aspects, it comes closer than any other smartphone competitors. So, for those attracted to the features of the iPhone but reluctant to deal with Apple's restrictions or hostile to the Apple brand and everything it represents, Android devices have become today's natural alternative.
Photo credit: CNET News
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