Android Is The Best Mobile Platform

Android Is The Best Mobile Platform. Over hundreds of millions of mobile devices in over 190 countries choose Android as the preferred platform. Android OS has the largest installed base of any mobile platform. The cross platform makes it ideal for digital content and mobile applications. Over 1 million devices are activated daily using Android. It is by far to date the fastest growing mobile operating system.

According to IDC, the smartphone market passed an important milestone in 2013 when worldwide shipments surpassed the 1 billion mark for the first time, driven by continued momentum from Android and iOS. The recent report of last month’s International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android and iOS accounted for 95.7% of all smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13), and for 93.8% of all smartphone shipments for the year. This marked a 4.5-point increase from the 91.2% share that the two platforms shared in 4Q12, and a 6.1-point increase from the 87.7% share they had in 2012.

As of July 2013, more than 1 million applications have been developed for Android, with over 25 billion downloads. A June 2011 research indicated that over 67% of mobile developers used the platform, at the time of publication. In Q2 2012, around 105 million units of Android smartphones were shipped which acquires a total share of 68% in overall smartphones sale till Q2 2012.

"Clearly, there was strong end-user demand for both Android and iOS products during the quarter and the year," says Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "What stands out are the different routes Android and Apple took to meet this demand. Android relied on its long list of OEM partners, a broad and deep collection of devices, and price points that appealed to nearly every market segment. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, relied on nearly the opposite approach: a limited selection of Apple-only devices, whose prices trended higher than most. Despite these differences, both platforms found a warm reception to their respective user experiences and selection of mobile applications."

There is a strong sense of powerful framework development with Android. With the Android OS specific tools to create apps are available where many hardware features can also be leveraged. The UI automatically is adaptable to the device as well. Android Developer Tools are efficient and offer full Java IDE and advanced features.

Google has reached over billions of Android apps installed by users. The number of Android apps downloaded have only risen higher. The growth of Google's app installations continue to get higher. Its first billion installs alone took months and the installation time has only become shorter since then. Google's open platform is poised for many opportunities such as within its Google Android Play Market and Amazon's Android App Store.