Shalom Solomon 17th April, 2021

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Android since it's creation in 2008 became popular and displaced other popular mobile phone Operating Systems like Nokia's Symbian Operating System. Although, there were other OS that were in the market before it (Android Operating System) was launched, Android has climbed to the top and remained the Number one OS for almost all smartphones.

Examples of other mobile Operating Systems are:

Some of these companies like Samsung have dropped their OS and now use the Android OS for their smart phones.

Initially Android was developed to work in only mobile phones. The first three versions were only for mobile phones. Subsequent versions were developed later on for only tablets, and then compatible versions for tablets and phones. 

Android has managed to maintain it's position as the number one Operating System for smartphones apart from iPhones of course. A huge contributing factor to this feat is the fact that Android is majorly an open source software, meaning that other developers can also work on it. This quality has made the development of Android apps very easy and popular.

In 2020, there were over 2.95 million Android apps on Google Play Store. This massive mobile app collection has made Android OS an ecosystem of it's own right. 

Another contributing factor to the relevance of the Android OS is that, Android is consistently updated and new versions are developed regularly to meet the growing and changing needs of smart phone users.

One funny tidbit about Android OS is that most of the versions were named after sweets and pastries. Below are all the versions of Android OS from it's first development till present.

2. Version1.1: No codename

API level: 2

Release date: February 9, 2009

3. Version 1.5: Cupcake

API level: 3

Release date: April 27, 2009

4. Version 1.6: Donut

API level: 4

Release date: September 15, 2009

5. Version 2.0 - 2.1: Eclair

API level: 5 - 7

Release date: October 26, 2009

6. Version 2.2 - 2.2.3: Froyo

API level: 8

Release date: May 20, 2010

7. Version: 2.3 - 2.3.7: Gingerbread

API level: 9 - 10

Release date: December 6, 2010

8. Version 3.0 - 3.2.6: Honeycomb

API level: 11 - 13

Release date: February 22, 2011

9. Version 4.0 - 4.0.4: Ice Cream and Sandwich

API level: 14 - 15

Release date: October 18, 2011

10. Version 4.1 - 4.3.1: Jelly Bean

API level: 16 - 18

Release date: July 9, 2012

11. Version 4.4 - 4.4.4: KitKat

API level: 19 - 20

Release date: October 31, 2013

12. Version 5.0 - 5.1.1: Lollipop

API level: 21- 22

Release date: November 12, 2014

13. Version 6.0 - 6.0.1: Marshmallow

API level: 23

Release date: October 5, 2015

14. Version 7.0: Nougat

API level: 24

Release date: August 22, 2016

15. Version 7.1.0 - 7.1.2: Nougat

API level: 25

Release date: October 4, 2016

16. Version 8.0: Oreo

API level: 26

Release date: August 21, 2017

17. Version 8.1: Oreo

API level: 27

Release date: December 5, 2017

18. Version 9.0: Pie

API level: 28

Release date: August 6, 2018

19. Version 10.0: Android 10

API level: 29

Release date: September 3, 2019

20. Version 11: Android 11

API level: 30

Release date: September 8, 2020