Smart phones

About a year after the iPhone was released, word leaked out onto some blogger sites that Google was creating an open source operating system for phones. Based on Linux, the new OS would be made available free of charge to handset manufacturers and would also offer some of the advanced functions available to iPhone owners. Google would also allow developers to submit their applications to a common market where users of the OS could purchase and download these. The industry was instantly a buzz. Android adoption started out slow, but as the OS improved, more and more manufacturers started releasing phones with their tweaked version of the Android OS. The touch screens and features on a par with the iPhone at a fraction of the cost and on the carrier of their choice drove Android to success and made millions for Google in search revenue. More than that, it gave the iPhone some competition—and competition almost always drives innovation.