ANDROID PHONE | TABLET

Android is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later bought in 2005, the first Android-powered phone was sold in October 2008.

Android is the world’s most widely used smartphone platform. Android’s open nature has encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices which were officially released running other operating systems.

As of November 2013, Android’s share of the global smartphone market, led by Samsung products, has reached 80%. The operating system’s success has made it a target for patent litigation as part of the so-called “smartphone wars” between technology companies. As of May 2013, 48 billion apps have been installed from the Google Play store, and as of September 3, 2013, 1 billion Android devices have been activated.

APPLE PHONE | TABLET

iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally unveiled in 2007 for the iPhone, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini and second-generation Apple TV. Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Google’s Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware.

iOS is derived from OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation and various application frameworks. iOS is Apple’s mobile version of the OS X operating system used on Apple computers.

Major versions of iOS are released annually. The current release, iOS7, was released on September 18, 2013. It runs on the iPhone 4 and later, 2nd-generation iPad and later, all models of the iPad Mini, the 5th-generation iPod Touch, and Apple TV.