Android and iPhone:

In 2007, Apple Inc. introduced its first iPhone. It was initially costly, priced at $500 for the cheaper of two models on top of a two year contract. Initially lacking the capability to execute and multitask native applications, many reviewers considered originally released device to be more akin to a feature phone than a smartphone.[29] It was one of the first mobile phones to be mainly controlled through a touchscreen, the others being the LG Prada and the HTC Touch (also released in 2007). It was the first mobile phone to use a muti-touch interface, and it featured a web browser that Ars Technica then described as "far superior" to anything offered by that of its competitors. A process called jail breaking emerged quickly to provide unofficial third-party applications. Steve Jobs publicly stated that the iPhone lacked 3G support due to the immaturity, power use, and physical size requirements of 3G chip-sets at the time.

In July 2008, Apple introduced its second generation iPhone with a lower list price and 3G support. Released with it, Apple also created the App Store with both free and paid applications. The App Store can deliver applications developed by third parties directly to the iPhone or iPod Touch over Wi-Fi or cellular network without using a PC to download. With the introduction of the App Store, the iPhone gained one of the two key smartphone features that it lacked: the capability to install and execute native applications. The App Store has been a huge success for Apple and by April 2010 hosted more than 185,000 applications. The App Store hit three billion application downloads in early January 2010, and 10 billion by January 2011. In June of 2010, Apple introduced multitasking capability to iOS.
Android logo

The Android operating system for smartphones was released in 2008. Android is an open source platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Motorola and Samsung, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance.[35] The first phone to use Android was the HTC Dream, branded for distribution by T-Mobile as the G1. The software suite included on the phone consists of integration with Google's proprietary applications, such as Maps, Calendar, and Gmail, and a full HTML web browser. Android supports the execution of native applications and a preemptive multitasking capability (in the form of services). Third-party apps are available via the Android Market (released October 2008), including both free and paid apps.

In January 2010, Google launched the Nexus One smartphone using its Android OS. Although Android has multi-touch abilities, Google initially removed that feature from the Nexus One, but it was added through a firmware update on February 2, 2010.

According to Gartner in their report dated November 2010, total smartphone sales doubled in one year and now smartphones represent 19.3 percent of total mobile phone sales. Over late 2009 and 2010 Android's smartphone market share increased very rapidly.

Smartphone sales increased in 2010 by 72.1 percent from the prior year, whereas sales for all mobile phones only increased by 31.8 percent. Smartphones make up 19 percent of all mobile phones.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, Android surpassed Symbian as the most common operating system in smartphones, with 32.9 million units sold versus 31.0 million. Android-equipped phones sold seven times more than in the prior year due to customers' increased preference for a device that can access websites while bypassing traditional computers. According to Canalys, Google, which offers its software to phone makers for free, has raced to the top of the smartphone market and also surpassing Apple iPhone. In Q1 2011 Google Android market shares was 35 percent and increased significantly from 10 percent last year, while Nokia Symbian dropped to 26 percent from 46 percent last year.

Concerning the Xperia Play smartphone, an analyst at CCS Insight said in March 2011 that "Console wars are moving to the mobile platform". In the same month, an Android high-end smartphone which can produce 3D effects with no need for special glasses (autostereoscopy) was announced by LG Electronics.

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