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6! = 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1
= 6 × 5!
= 6 × 120 [by previous calculation]
= 720
A permutation is an arrangement, or listing of objects in which order is important.
A COMBINATION is an arrangement of objects in which order is not important.c
: The number of distinct PERMUTATIONS of n objects is “n factorial”, denoted by
n! = 1 × 2 × 3 × ... × n, or equivalently,
= n × [n − 1] × [n − 2] × ... × 2 × 1
RULE 1 If n is a positive integer, then the number of permutations or rearrangements of a set of n objects
in a row is n!. Repetition is not allowed.
How many ways can we arrange the word WORD? 4!=24
RULE 2 nPr Read as “Permutation of n objects taken r at a time”. In this rule, not all objects are to be
arranged. We just have to choose r objects from n objects. REPETITION IS NOT ALLOWED
HERE.
How many 4-digit numbers can be formed from 8 numbers? 8P4 = 1,680
RULE 3 In this rule, in the denominator are the objects that are identical.
How many ways can we arrange the word POOL? 4!/1!x2!x1! = 12
RULE 4 Circular permutation is the total number of ways in which n distinct objects can be arranged around a fix circle
The number of ways of rearranging n distinct objects in a circle is [n-1]!
How many ways can we rearrange 8 people on a round table with no restrictions?
[8-1]! = 5,040
RULE 5
The number of permutations of n objects taken r at a time of REPETITION is allowed is
n × n × n × n × n × ... × n = n
How many 4-digit number can you make from 10 numbers?
10^4 = 10,000
How many 10 different members of a committee can be formed from 25 people?
25C10 or 25!/[25-10]!10! =3,268,760
Person A has 20 phones, and he gives 12 to person B, how many phones does he have now?
20C12 or 20!/[20-12]!12! = 125,970
In how many ways can a coach of a varsity team pick 15 students from 30 students who are applying?
30C15 or 30!/[30-15]!15! = 155,177,520
In how many ways you can choose 8 of 32 playing cards not considering their order?
32C8 or 32!/[32-8]! = 10,518,300
The playing cards can be chosen in 10 518 300 ways.
Hit the Button is an interactive maths game with quick fire questions on number bonds, times tables, doubling and halving, multiples, division facts and square numbers. The games, which are against the clock, challenge and develop mental maths skills. An untimed, practise mode is available in our Hit the Button app along with lots more extra features.
The activities can be matched to appropriate mathematical ability. Regular use of Hit the Button can help students to sharpen their recall of vital number facts in a fun way and learning multiplication tables need not be boring.
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance and commercially sponsored by Google. It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008.
Most versions of Android are proprietary. The core components are taken from the Android Open Source Project [AOSP], which is free and open-source software [FOSS] primarily licensed under the Apache License. When Android is installed on devices, the ability to modify the otherwise free and open-source software is usually restricted, either by not providing the corresponding source code or by preventing reinstallation through technical measures, thus rendering the installed version proprietary. Most Android devices ship with additional proprietary software pre-installed,[4] most notably Google Mobile Services [GMS][5] which includes core apps such as Google Chrome, the digital distribution platform Google Play, and the associated Google Play Services development platform.
Over 70 percent of Android smartphones run Google's ecosystem, some with vendor-customized user interfaces and software suites, such as TouchWiz and later One UI by Samsung and HTC Sense.[6] Competing Android ecosystems and forks include Fire OS [developed by Amazon], ColorOS by OPPO, OriginOS by Vivo, MagicUI by Honor, or custom ROMs such as LineageOS. However, the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google, which imposes standards to restrict the use of Android branding by "uncertified" devices outside their ecosystem.[7][8]
The source code has been used to develop variants of Android on a range of other electronics, such as game consoles, digital cameras, portable media players, and PCs, each with a specialized user interface. Some well known derivatives include Android TV for televisions and Wear OS for wearables, both developed by Google. Software packages on Android, which use the APK format, are generally distributed through proprietary application stores like Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore [including for Windows 11], Samsung Galaxy Store, Huawei AppGallery, Cafe Bazaar, and GetJar, or open source platforms like Aptoide or F-Droid.
Android has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011 and on tablets since 2013. As of May 2021, it had over three billion monthly active users, the largest installed base of any operating system,[9] and as of January 2021, the Google Play Store featured over 3 million apps.[10] Android 13, released on August 15, 2022, is the latest version,[11] and the recently released Android 12.1/12L includes improvements specific to foldable phones, tablets, desktop-sized screens[12] and Chromebooks.
History
dm-verity has been implemented. This is a feature in the Linux kernel that allows for transparent integrity checking of block devices.[302][303]
This feature is designed to mitigate persistent rootkits.
Google Play Services and vendor changes
Dependence on proprietary Google Play Services and customizations added on top of the operating system by vendors who license Android from Google is causing privacy concerns.[304][305][306]
Licensing
The source code for Android is open-source: it is developed in private by Google, with the source code released publicly when a new version of Android is released. Google publishes most of the code [including network and telephony stacks] under the non-copyleft Apache License version 2.0. which allows modification and redistribution.[307][308] The license does not grant rights to the "Android" trademark, so device manufacturers and wireless carriers have to license it from Google under individual contracts. Associated Linux kernel changes are released under the copyleft GNU General Public License version 2, developed by the Open Handset Alliance, with the source code publicly available at all times.[309] The only Android release which was not immediately made available as source code was the tablet-only 3.0 Honeycomb release. The reason, according to Andy Rubin in an official Android blog post, was because Honeycomb was rushed for production of the Motorola Xoom,[310] and they did not want third parties creating a "really bad user experience" by attempting to put onto smartphones a version of Android intended for tablets.[311]
Only the base Android operating system [including some applications] is open-source software, whereas most Android devices ship with a substantial amount of proprietary software, such as Google Mobile Services, which includes applications such as Google Play Store, Google Search, and Google Play Services – a software layer that provides APIs for the integration with Google-provided services, among others. These applications must be licensed from Google by device makers, and can only be shipped on devices which meet its compatibility guidelines and other requirements.[114] Custom, certified distributions of Android produced by manufacturers [such as Samsung Experience] may also replace certain stock Android apps with their own proprietary variants and add additional software not included in the stock Android operating system.[113] With the advent of the Google Pixel line of devices, Google itself has also made specific Android features timed or permanent exclusives to the Pixel series.[312][313] There may also be "binary blob" drivers required for certain hardware components in the device.[113][165] The best known fully open source Android services are the LineageOS distribution and MicroG which acts as an open source replacement of Google Play Services.
Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation have been critical of Android and have recommended the usage of alternatives such as Replicant, because drivers and firmware vital for the proper functioning of Android devices are usually proprietary, and because the Google Play Store application can forcibly install or uninstall applications and, as a result, invite non-free software. In both cases, the use of closed-source software causes the system to become vulnerable to backdoors.[314][315]
It has been argued that because developers are often required to purchase the Google-branded Android license, this has turned the theoretically open system into a freemium service.[316]: 20
Leverage over manufacturers
Google licenses their Google Mobile Services software, along with the Android trademarks, only to hardware manufacturers for devices that meet Google's compatibility standards specified in the Android Compatibility Program document.[317] Thus, forks of Android that make major changes to the operating system itself do not include any of Google's non-free components, stay incompatible with applications that require them, and must ship with an alternative software marketplace in lieu of Google Play Store.[113] A prominent example of such an Android fork is Amazon's Fire OS, which is used on the Kindle Fire line of tablets, and oriented toward Amazon services.[113] The shipment of Android devices without GMS is also common in mainland China, as Google does not do business there.[318][319][320]
In 2014, Google also began to require that all Android devices which license the Google Mobile Services software display a prominent "Powered by Android" logo on their boot screens.[114] Google has also enforced preferential bundling and placement of Google Mobile Services on devices, including mandated bundling of the entire main suite of Google applications, mandatory placement of shortcuts to Google Search and the Play Store app on or near the main home screen page in its default configuration,[321] and granting a larger share of search revenue to OEMs who agree to not include third-party app stores on their devices.[322] In March 2018, it was reported that Google had begun to block "uncertified" Android devices from using Google Mobile Services software, and display a warning indicating that "the device manufacturer has preloaded Google apps and services without certification from Google". Users of custom ROMs can register their device ID to their Google account to remove this block.[323]
Some stock applications and components in AOSP code that were formerly used by earlier versions of Android, such as Search, Music, Calendar, and the location API, were abandoned by Google in favor of non-free replacements distributed through Play Store [Google Search, Google Play Music, and Google Calendar] and Google Play Services, which are no longer open-source. Moreover, open-source variants of some applications also exclude functions that are present in their non-free versions.[113][324][325][326] These measures are likely intended to discourage forks and encourage commercial licensing in line with Google requirements, as the majority of the operating system's core functionality is dependent on proprietary components licensed exclusively by Google, and it would take significant development resources to develop an alternative suite of software and APIs to replicate or replace them. Apps that do not use Google components would also be at a functional disadvantage, as they can only use APIs contained within the OS itself. In turn, third-party apps may have dependencies on Google Play Services.[327]
Members of the Open Handset Alliance, which include the majority of Android OEMs, are also contractually forbidden from producing Android devices based on forks of the OS;[113][328] in 2012, Acer Inc. was forced by Google to halt production on a device powered by Alibaba Group's Aliyun OS with threats of removal from the OHA, as Google deemed the platform to be an incompatible version of Android. Alibaba Group defended the allegations, arguing that the OS was a distinct platform from Android [primarily using HTML5 apps], but incorporated portions of Android's platform to allow backwards compatibility with third-party Android software. Indeed, the devices did ship with an application store which offered Android apps; however, the majority of them were pirated.[329][330][331]
Reception
Android received a lukewarm reaction when it was unveiled in 2007. Although analysts were impressed with the respected technology companies that had partnered with Google to form the Open Handset Alliance, it was unclear whether mobile phone manufacturers would be willing to replace their existing operating systems with Android.[332] The idea of an open-source, Linux-based development platform sparked interest,[333] but there were additional worries about Android facing strong competition from established players in the smartphone market, such as Nokia and Microsoft, and rival Linux mobile operating systems that were in development.[334] These established players were skeptical: Nokia was quoted as saying "we don't see this as a threat", and a member of Microsoft's Windows Mobile team stated "I don't understand the impact that they are going to have."[335]
Since then Android has grown to become the most widely used smartphone operating system[336][337] and "one of the fastest mobile experiences available".[338] Reviewers have highlighted the open-source nature of the operating system as one of its defining strengths, allowing companies such as Nokia [Nokia X family],[339] Amazon [Kindle Fire], Barnes & Noble [Nook], Ouya, Baidu and others to fork the software and release hardware running their own customised version of Android. As a result, it has been described by technology website Ars Technica as "practically the default operating system for launching new hardware" for companies without their own mobile platforms.[336] This openness and flexibility is also present at the level of the end user: Android allows extensive customisation of devices by their owners and apps are freely available from non-Google app stores and third party websites. These have been cited as among the main advantages of Android phones over others.[336][340]
Despite Android's popularity, including an activation rate three times that of iOS, there have been reports that Google has not been able to leverage their other products and web services successfully to turn Android into the money maker that analysts had expected.[341] The Verge suggested that Google is losing control of Android due to the extensive customization and proliferation of non-Google apps and services – Amazon's Kindle Fire line uses Fire OS, a heavily modified fork of Android which does not include or support any of Google's proprietary components, and requires that users obtain software from its competing Amazon Appstore instead of Play Store.[113] In 2014, in an effort to improve prominence of the Android brand, Google began to require that devices featuring its proprietary components display an Android logo on the boot screen.[114]
Android has suffered from "fragmentation",[342] a situation where the variety of Android devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently across the ecosystem harder than rival platforms such as iOS where hardware and software varies less. For example, according to data from OpenSignal in July 2013, there were 11,868 models of Android devices, numerous screen sizes and eight Android OS versions simultaneously in use, while the large majority of iOS users have upgraded to the latest iteration of that OS.[343] Critics such as Apple Insider have asserted that fragmentation via hardware and software pushed Android's growth through large volumes of low end, budget-priced devices running older versions of Android. They maintain this forces Android developers to write for the "lowest common denominator" to reach as many users as possible, who have too little incentive to make use of the latest hardware or software features only available on a smaller percentage of devices.[344] However, OpenSignal, who develops both Android and iOS apps, concluded that although fragmentation can make development trickier, Android's wider global reach also increases the potential reward.[343]
Android is the most used operating system on phones in virtually all countries, with some countries, such as India, having over 96% market share.[345] On tablets, usage is more even, as iOS is a bit more popular globally.
Research company Canalys estimated in the second quarter of 2009, that Android had a 2.8% share of worldwide smartphone shipments.[346] By May 2010, Android had a 10% worldwide smartphone market share, overtaking Windows Mobile,[347] whilst in the US Android held a 28% share, overtaking iPhone OS.[348] By the fourth quarter of 2010, its worldwide share had grown to 33% of the market becoming the top-selling smartphone platform,[349] overtaking Symbian.[350] In the US it became the top-selling platform in April 2011, overtaking BlackBerry OS with a 31.2% smartphone share, according to comScore.[351]
By the third quarter of 2011, Gartner estimated that more than half [52.5%] of the smartphone sales belonged to Android.[352] By the third quarter of 2012 Android had a 75% share of the global smartphone market according to the research firm IDC.[353]
In July 2011, Google said that 550,000 Android devices were being activated every day,[354] up from 400,000 per day in May,[355] and more than 100 million devices had been activated[356] with 4.4% growth per week.[354] In September 2012, 500 million devices had been activated with 1.3 million activations per day.[357][358] In May 2013, at Google I/O, Sundar Pichai announced that 900 million Android devices had been activated.[359]
Android market share varies by location. In July 2012, "mobile subscribers aged 13+" in the United States using Android were up to 52%,[360] and rose to 90% in China.[361] During the third quarter of 2012, Android's worldwide smartphone shipment market share was 75%,[353] with 750 million devices activated in total. In April 2013, Android had 1.5 million activations per day.[358] As of May 2013, 48 billion application ["app"] installation have been performed from the Google Play store,[362] and by September 2013, one billion Android devices had been activated.[363]
As of August 2020, the Google Play store had over 3 million Android applications published,[10][364] and as of May 2016, apps had been downloaded more than 65 billion times.[365] The operating system's success has made it a target for patent litigation as part of the so-called "smartphone wars" between technology companies.[366][367]
Android devices account for more than half of smartphone sales in most markets, including the US, while "only in Japan was Apple on top" [September–November 2013 numbers].[368] At the end of 2013, over 1.5 billion Android smartphones had been sold in the four years since 2010,[369][370] making Android the most sold phone and tablet OS. Three billion Android smartphones were estimated to be sold by the end of 2014 [including previous years]. According to Gartner research company, Android-based devices outsold all contenders, every year since 2012.[371] In 2013, it outsold Windows 2.8:1 or by 573 million.[372][373][374] As of 2015, Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems;[21] Since 2013, devices running it also sell more than Windows, iOS and Mac OS X devices combined.[375]
According to StatCounter, which tracks only the use for browsing the web, Android is the most popular mobile operating system since August 2013.[376] Android is the most popular operating system for web browsing in India and several other countries [e.g. virtually all of Asia, with Japan and North Korea exceptions]. According to StatCounter, Android is most used on mobile in all African countries, and it stated "mobile usage has already overtaken desktop in several countries including India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia",[377] with virtually all countries in Africa having done so already [except for seven countries, including Egypt], such as Ethiopia and Kenya in which mobile [including tablets] usage is at 90.46% [Android only, accounts for 75.81% of all use there].[378][379]
While Android phones in the Western world almost always include Google's proprietary code [such as Google Play] in the otherwise open-source operating system, Google's proprietary code and trademark is increasingly not used in emerging markets; "The growth of AOSP Android devices goes way beyond just China [..] ABI Research claims that 65 million devices shipped globally with open-source Android in the second quarter of [2014], up from 54 million in the first quarter"; depending on country, percent of phones estimated to be based only on AOSP source code, forgoing the Android trademark: Thailand [44%], Philippines [38%], Indonesia [31%], India [21%], Malaysia [24%], Mexico [18%], Brazil [9%].[380]
According to a January 2015 Gartner report, "Android surpassed a billion shipments of devices in 2014, and will continue to grow at a double-digit pace in 2015, with a 26 percent increase year over year." This made it the first time that any general-purpose operating system has reached more than one billion end users within a year: by reaching close to 1.16 billion end users in 2014, Android shipped over four times more than iOS and OS X combined, and over three times more than Microsoft Windows. Gartner expected the whole mobile phone market to "reach two billion units in 2016", including Android.[381] Describing the statistics, Farhad Manjoo wrote in The New York Times that "About one of every two computers sold today is running Android. [It] has become Earth's dominant computing platform."[21]
According to a Statistica's estimate, Android smartphones had an installed base of 1.8 billion units in 2015, which was 76% of the estimated total number of smartphones worldwide.[382][383][a] Android has the largest installed base of any mobile operating system and, since 2013, the highest-selling operating system overall[372][375][385][386][387] with sales in 2012, 2013 and 2014[388] close to the installed base of all PCs.[389]
In the second quarter of 2014, Android's share of the global smartphone shipment market was 84.7%, a new record.[390][391] This had grown to 87.5% worldwide market share by the third quarter of 2016,[392] leaving main competitor iOS with 12.1% market share.[393]
According to an April 2017 StatCounter report, Android overtook Microsoft Windows to become the most popular operating system for total Internet usage.[394][395] It has maintained the plurality since then.[396]
In September 2015, Google announced that Android had 1.4 billion monthly active users.[397][398] This changed to 2 billion monthly active users in May 2017.[399][400]
Adoption on tablets
Despite its success on smartphones, initially Android tablet adoption was slow,[401] then later caught up with the iPad, in most countries. One of the main causes was the chicken or the egg situation where consumers were hesitant to buy an Android tablet due to a lack of high quality tablet applications, but developers were hesitant to spend time and resources developing tablet applications until there was a significant market for them.[402][403] The content and app "ecosystem" proved more important than hardware specs as the selling point for tablets. Due to the lack of Android tablet-specific applications in 2011, early Android tablets had to make do with existing smartphone applications that were ill-suited to larger screen sizes, whereas the dominance of Apple's iPad was reinforced by the large number of tablet-specific iOS applications.[403][404]
Despite app support in its infancy, a considerable number of Android tablets, like the Barnes & Noble Nook [alongside those using other operating systems, such as the HP TouchPad and BlackBerry PlayBook] were rushed out to market in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the iPad.[403] InfoWorld has suggested that some Android manufacturers initially treated their first tablets as a "Frankenphone business", a short-term low-investment opportunity by placing a smartphone-optimized Android OS [before Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets was available] on a device while neglecting user interface. This approach, such as with the Dell Streak, failed to gain market traction with consumers as well as damaging the early reputation of Android tablets.[405][406] Furthermore, several Android tablets such as the Motorola Xoom were priced the same or higher than the iPad, which hurt sales. An exception was the Amazon Kindle Fire, which relied upon lower pricing as well as access to Amazon's ecosystem of applications and content.[403][407]
This began to change in 2012, with the release of the affordable Nexus 7 and a push by Google for developers to write better tablet applications.[408] According to International Data Corporation, shipments of Android-powered tablets surpassed iPads in Q3 2012.[409]
As of the end of 2013, over 191.6 million Android tablets had sold in three years since 2011.[410][411] This made Android tablets the most-sold type of tablet in 2013, surpassing iPads in the second quarter of 2013.[412]
According to StatCounter's web use statistics, as of 2020, Android tablets represent the majority of tablet devices used in Africa [70%], South America [65%], while less than half elsewhere, e.g. Europe [44%], Asia [44%], North America [34%] and Oceania/Australia [18%]. There are countries on all continents where Android tablets are the majority, for example, Mexico.[413]
In March 2016, Galen Gruman of InfoWorld stated that Android devices could be a "real part of your business [..] there's no longer a reason to keep Android at arm's length. It can now be as integral to your mobile portfolio as Apple's iOS devices are".[414] A year earlier, Gruman had stated that Microsoft's own mobile Office apps were "better on iOS and Android" than on Microsoft's own Windows 10 devices.[415]
Platform information
The recently released Android 12 is the most popular Android version on both smartphones and tablets.
As of November 2022, Android 12 is most popular on smartphones at 30%.[416] Usage of Android 10 and newer, i.e. supported versions, is at 75%, the rest of users are not supported with security updates. Android 12 is most popular in a few countries including the United States,[417] but Android 11 is most used in most countries, including India, while in many others, including China, Android 10 is the most popular version.[418]
On tablets, Android 12 is most popular at 19%[419] Android 11 is 2nd almost even with it, and it overtook Android 9.0 Pie in July 2021, which is now third at 17% [topped out at over 20%].[420] Usage of Android 10 and newer, i.e. supported versions, is at 43% on Android tablets, with Pie 9.O, until recently supported, at 60%. The usage share varies a lot by country: e.g. Android 9.0 Pie is the version with the greatest usage share in the United States [also in the UK] at 34%, while Android 11 is also very popular e.g. most used in India, Canada, Australia, and most European countries, and others all over the world; Oreo 8.1 most used in China.[421]
As of July 2021, 66% of devices have Vulkan support [47% on newer Vulkan 1.1],[429] the successor to OpenGL. At the same time 91.5% of the devices have support for OpenGL ES 3.0 or higher [in addition, the rest of devices, 8.50%, use version 2.0], with 73.50% using the latest version OpenGL ES 3.2.
In general, paid Android applications can easily be pirated.[430] In a May 2012 interview with Eurogamer, the developers of Football Manager stated that the ratio of pirated players vs legitimate players was 9:1 for their game Football Manager Handheld.[431] However, not every developer agreed that piracy rates were an issue; for example, in July 2012 the developers of the game Wind-up Knight said that piracy levels of their game were only 12%, and most of the piracy came from China, where people cannot purchase apps from Google Play.[432]
In 2010, Google released a tool for validating authorized purchases for use within apps, but developers complained that this was insufficient and trivial to crack. Google responded that the tool, especially its initial release, was intended as a sample framework for developers to modify and build upon depending on their needs, not as a finished piracy solution.[433] Android "Jelly Bean" introduced the ability for paid applications to be encrypted, so that they may work only on the device for which they were purchased.[434][435]
Legal issues
The success of Android has made it a target for patent and copyright litigation between technology companies, both Android and Android phone manufacturers having been involved in numerous patent lawsuits and other legal challenges.
Patent lawsuit with Oracle
On August 12, 2010, Oracle sued Google over claimed infringement of copyrights and patents related to the Java programming language.[436] Oracle originally sought damages up to $6.1 billion,[437] but this valuation was rejected by a United States federal judge who asked Oracle to revise the estimate.[438] In response, Google submitted multiple lines of defense, counterclaiming that Android did not infringe on Oracle's patents or copyright, that Oracle's patents were invalid, and several other defenses. They said that Android's Java runtime environment is based on Apache Harmony, a clean room implementation of the Java class libraries, and an independently developed virtual machine called Dalvik.[439] In May 2012, the jury in this case found that Google did not infringe on Oracle's patents, and the trial judge ruled that the structure of the Java APIs used by Google was not copyrightable.[440][441] The parties agreed to zero dollars in statutory damages for a small amount of copied code.[442] On May 9, 2014, the Federal Circuit partially reversed the district court ruling, ruling in Oracle's favor on the copyrightability issue, and remanding the issue of fair use to the district court.[443][444]
In December 2015, Google announced that the next major release of Android [Android Nougat] would switch to OpenJDK, which is the official open-source implementation of the Java platform, instead of using the now-discontinued Apache Harmony project as its runtime. Code reflecting this change was also posted to the AOSP source repository.[217] In its announcement, Google claimed this was part of an effort to create a "common code base" between Java on Android and other platforms.[218] Google later admitted in a court filing that this was part of an effort to address the disputes with Oracle, as its use of OpenJDK code is governed under the GNU General Public License [GPL] with a linking exception, and that "any damages claim associated with the new versions expressly licensed by Oracle under OpenJDK would require a separate analysis of damages from earlier releases".[217] In June 2016, a United States federal court ruled in favor of Google, stating that its use of the APIs was fair use.[445]
In April 2021, the United Supreme Court ruled that Google's use of the Java APIs was within the bounds of fair use, reversing the Federal Circuit Appeals Court ruling and remanding the case for further hearing. The majority opinion began with the assumption that the APIs may be copyrightable, and thus proceeded with a review of the factors that contributed to fair use.[446]
Anti-competitive challenges in Europe
In 2013, FairSearch, a lobbying organization supported by Microsoft, Oracle and others, filed a complaint regarding Android with the European Commission, alleging that its free-of-charge distribution model constituted anti-competitive predatory pricing. The Free Software Foundation Europe, whose donors include Google, disputed the Fairsearch allegations.[447] On April 20, 2016, the EU filed a formal antitrust complaint against Google based upon the FairSearch allegations, arguing that its leverage over Android vendors, including the mandatory bundling of the entire suite of proprietary Google software, hindering the ability for competing search providers to be integrated into Android, and barring vendors from producing devices running forks of Android, constituted anti-competitive practices.[448] In August 2016, Google was fined US$6.75 million by the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service [FAS] under similar allegations by Yandex.[449] The European Commission issued its decision on July 18, 2018, determining that Google had conducted three operations related to Android that were in violation of antitrust regulations: bundling Google's search and Chrome as part of Android, blocking phone manufacturers from using forked versions of Android, and establishing deals with phone manufacturers and network providers to exclusively bundle the Google search application on handsets [a practice Google ended by 2014]. The EU fined Google for €4.3 billion [about US$5 billion] and required the company to end this conduct within 90 days.[450] Google filed its appeal of the ruling in October 2018, though will not ask for any interim measures to delay the onset of conduct requirements.[451]
On October 16, 2018, Google announced that it would change its distribution model for Google Mobile Services in the EU, since part of its revenues streams for Android which came through use of Google Search and Chrome were now prohibited by the EU's ruling. While the core Android system remains free, OEMs in Europe would be required to purchase a paid license to the core suite of Google applications, such as Gmail, Google Maps and the Google Play Store. Google Search will be licensed separately, with an option to include Google Chrome at no additional cost atop Search. European OEMs can bundle third-party alternatives on phones and devices sold to customers, if they so choose. OEMs will no longer be barred from selling any device running incompatible versions of Android in Europe.[452]
Others
In addition to lawsuits against Google directly, various proxy wars have been waged against Android indirectly by targeting manufacturers of Android devices, with the effect of discouraging manufacturers from adopting the platform by increasing the costs of bringing an Android device to market.[453] Both Apple and Microsoft have sued several manufacturers for patent infringement, with Apple's ongoing legal action against Samsung being a particularly high-profile case. In January 2012, Microsoft said they had signed patent license agreements with eleven Android device manufacturers, whose products account for "70 percent of all Android smartphones" sold in the US[454] and 55% of the worldwide revenue for Android devices.[455] These include Samsung and HTC.[456] Samsung's patent settlement with Microsoft included an agreement to allocate more resources to developing and marketing phones running Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.[453] Microsoft has also tied its own Android software to patent licenses, requiring the bundling of Microsoft Office Mobile and Skype applications on Android devices to subsidize the licensing fees, while at the same time helping to promote its software lines.[457][458]
Google has publicly expressed its frustration for the current patent landscape in the United States, accusing Apple, Oracle and Microsoft of trying to take down Android through patent litigation, rather than innovating and competing with better products and services.[459] In August 2011, Google purchased Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion, which was viewed in part as a defensive measure to protect Android, since Motorola Mobility held more than 17,000 patents.[460][461] In December 2011, Google bought over a thousand patents from IBM.[462]
Turkey's competition authority investigations about default search engine in Android, started in 2017, led to a US$17.4 million fine in September 2018 and a fine of 0.05 percent of Google's revenue per day in November 2019 when Google didn't meet the requirements.[463] In December 2019, Google stopped issuing licenses for new Android phone models sold in Turkey.[463]
Other uses
Google has developed several variations of Android for specific use cases, including Android Wear, later renamed Wear OS, for wearable devices such as wrist watches,[464][465] Android TV for televisions,[466][467] Android Things for smart or Internet of things devices and Android Automotive for cars.[468][469] Additionally, by providing infrastructure that combines dedicated hardware and dedicated applications running on regular Android, Google have opened up the platform for its use in particular usage scenarios, such as the Android Auto app for cars,[470][471] and Daydream, a Virtual Reality platform.[472]
The open and customizable nature of Android allows device makers to use it on other electronics as well, including laptops, netbooks,[473][474] and desktop computers,[475] cameras,[476] headphones,[477] home automation systems, game consoles,[478] media players,[479] satellites,[480] routers,[481] printers,[482] payment terminals,[483] automated teller machines,[484] and robots.[485] Additionally, Android has been installed and run on a variety of less-technical objects, including calculators,[486] single-board computers,[487] feature phones,[488] electronic dictionaries,[489] alarm clocks,[490] refrigerators,[491] landline telephones,[492] coffee machines,[493] bicycles,[494] and mirrors.[478]
Ouya, a video game console running Android, became one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, crowdfunding US$8.5m for its development,[495][496] and was later followed by other Android-based consoles, such as Nvidia's Shield Portable – an Android device in a video game controller form factor.[497]
In 2011, Google demonstrated "Android@Home", a home automation technology which uses Android to control a range of household devices including light switches, power sockets and thermostats.[498] Prototype light bulbs were announced that could be controlled from an Android phone or tablet, but Android head Andy Rubin was cautious to note that "turning a lightbulb on and off is nothing new", pointing to numerous failed home automation services. Google, he said, was thinking more ambitiously and the intention was to use their position as a cloud services provider to bring Google products into customers' homes.[499][500]
Parrot unveiled an Android-based car stereo system known as Asteroid in 2011,[501] followed by a successor, the touchscreen-based Asteroid Smart, in 2012.[502] In 2013, Clarion released its own Android-based car stereo, the AX1.[503] In January 2014, at the Consumer Electronics Show [CES], Google announced the formation of the Open Automotive Alliance, a group including several major automobile makers [Audi, General Motors, Hyundai, and Honda] and Nvidia, which aims to produce Android-based in-car entertainment systems for automobiles, "[bringing] the best of Android into the automobile in a safe and seamless way."[504]
Android comes preinstalled on a few laptops [a similar functionality of running Android applications is also available in Google's ChromeOS] and can also be installed on personal computers by end users.[505][506] On those platforms Android provides additional functionality for physical keyboards[507] and mice, together with the "Alt-Tab" key combination for switching applications quickly with a keyboard. In December 2014, one reviewer commented that Android's notification system is "vastly more complete and robust than in most environments" and that Android is "absolutely usable" as one's primary desktop operating system.[508]
In October 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Android will serve as Google's future main laptop operating system, with the plan to fold ChromeOS into it by 2017.[509][510] Google's Sundar Pichai, who led the development of Android, explained that "mobile as a computing paradigm is eventually going to blend with what we think of as desktop today."[509] Also, back in 2009, Google co-founder Sergey Brin himself said that ChromeOS and Android would "likely converge over time."[511] Lockheimer, who replaced Pichai as head of Android and ChromeOS, responded to this claim with an official Google blog post stating that "While we've been working on ways to bring together the best of both operating systems, there's no plan to phase out ChromeOS [which has] guaranteed auto-updates for five years".[512] That is unlike Android where support is shorter with "EOL dates [being..] at least 3 years [into the future] for Android tablets for education".[513]
At Google I/O in May 2016, Google announced Daydream, a virtual reality platform that relies on a smartphone and provides VR capabilities through a virtual reality headset and controller designed by Google itself.[472] The platform is built into Android starting with Android Nougat, differentiating from standalone support for VR capabilities. The software is available for developers, and was released in 2016.
Mascot
The mascot of Android is a green android robot, as related to the software's name. Although it has no official name, the Android team at Google reportedly call it "Bugdroid".[514]
It was designed by then-Google graphic designer Irina Blok on November 5, 2007, when Android was announced. Contrary to reports that she was tasked with a project to create an icon,[515] Blok confirmed in an interview that she independently developed it and made it open source. The robot design was initially not presented to Google, but it quickly became commonplace in the Android development team, with various variations of it created by the developers there who liked the figure, as it was free under a Creative Commons license.[516][517] Its popularity amongst the development team eventually led to Google adopting it as an official icon as part of the Android logo when it launched to consumers in 2008.