A mobile Tech is a software application developed specifically for use on small, wireless computing devices, such as smartphones and tablets, rather than desktop or laptop computers.
iOS is Apple’s proprietary operating system that runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Built for multitouch interaction, all user input in iOS is through touch gesturing, a technology that Apple has pioneered. Through the use of actions such as swiping, pulling, pinching, and tapping, users are put in a fluid, intuitive landscape. Many of Apple’s devices house gyroscopes and accelerometers, which allows users to change the orientation of applications as well as directly control by simply tilting the devices.
Mac OS X acts as the parent software for iOS, as it shares the Darwin operating system foundation, making it characteristically a UNIX operating system. There are four abstraction layers, ways of hiding the implementation details of a particular set of functionality, within iOS: the Core OS layer, Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer.
The overall trend of the operating system has given greater control to developers. There was no SDK (software development kit) for building native apps until iPhone OS 2.0, and at that point it was rather limited. iPhone OS 3.0 saw tremendous improvements, giving developers new abilities such as Core Location and Push Notifications. Finally, iOS 4.0 saw the introduction of multitasking, though in practice it asks more like app switching.
Initially developed by Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance – a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Beginning with the first commercial Android device in September 2008, the operating system has gone through multiple major releases, with the current version being 7.0 "Nougat", released in August 2016. Android applications ("apps") can be downloaded from the Google Play store, which features over 2.7 million apps as of February 2017. Android has been the best-selling OS on tablets since 2013, and runs on the vast majority[a] of smartphones. In September 2015, Android had 1.4 billion monthly active users, and it has the largest installed base of any operating system.
Android's source code is released by Google under an open source license, although most Android devices ultimately ship with a combination of free and open source and proprietary software, including proprietary software required for accessing Google services. Android is popular with technology companies that require a ready-made, low-cost and customizable operating system for high-tech devices. Its 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 deliver updates to older devices, add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices originally shipped with other operating systems.
Historically, Android's platform fragmentation caused issues with security, in which the majority of Android devices did not receive security patches, but recent developments have improved the situation. The success of Android has made it a target for patent and copyright litigation as part of the so-called "smartphone wars" between technology companies.