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Android

An open platform for smartphones from the Open Handset Alliance (www.openhandsetalliance.com). Based on Linux, Android includes a library of Java classes for building mobile applications. Enabling any developer to write an application for the phone, it competes with the traditionally closed platforms of cellular carriers. Android users can download and install applications the same as they do with Windows, Mac and Linux desktop applications.

Android and Google
Google is the primary developer of the platform, having acquired Android, Inc. in 2005, a startup that developed the software. Before Android's debut in late 2007, Google was expected to announce its own "Google phone." Instead, it launched the platform for others to make and service, and in less than a year, T-Mobile introduced the G1, the first Android phone. Sprint also joined the Android alliance, but not Verizon and AT&T, which, together, comprise more than half of U.S. cellular subscribers.

Google has also invested heavily in the Clearwire WiMAX venture. In 2008, Sprint and Clearwire merged to develop Internet access to mobile devices using WiMAX, rather than the traditional CDMA and GSM cellular technologies (see WiMAX). See smartphone, Open Handset Alliance and HTC.

The G1 - The First Android

In September 2008, T-Mobile introduced the first Android-based phone. Made by HTC, it features a touch screen and slide-out physical keyboard along with GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G communications. The entire screen (above the Menu button) slides to the right to reveal a physical keyboard in landscape orientation. (Image courtesy of HTC Corporation, www.htc.com)

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android

(in science fiction) a robot resembling a human being