What's an Android?

[Chrome Cat]

Please don't gun me down for asking.
But really, what the heck is Android anyway?

I've been reasearching tablets and they have all these different numbers and this is a 2.2 and this is a 3.2 and that's a Gingerbread and that's a Honeycomb and something about an Ice Cream Sandwich, yadda, yadda!

What the heck IS it??? And what is it responsible for doing exactly???!

Thank you much for clearing that up.

 

[aladdin99]

Android (operating system) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bnice]

Android is a operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Ice cream sandwich are the different versions of Android. Ice cream sandwich is the new and present version.

 

[Sak01]

It's analogous to how lots of different manufacturers make PCs - HP, Dell, Sony etc. - which all run the same operating system - Windows. You have different versions like Windows 7, Vista, XP...

In the same way a number of different manufacturers - HTC, Samsung, Motorola etc. make phones and tablets which run Android as their common operating system with the versions as explained above.

ps. the iPhone and the Ipad have a different operating system called iOS.