Android phones are the newest breed of phones to make a splash in the mobile phone retail market. These devices are based on the Linux operating system and are often referred to as 'smart phones.' The android mobile application was first developed by the open handset alliance and later headed by Google. This mobile technology first came into prominence in 2005 after Google purchased the first software developer, Android Inc. The android application was primarily developed on the java platform and in 2012 alone there have been more than 450,000 applications. Soon after the development of this smartphone phone platform it gained worldwide recognition and acclaim.

The Android, Inc. was first founded and developed by Andy Rubin of Google in Palo Alto, California, United States in the year October 2003. Ever since it's inception there has been a lot of up gradation and modification on the existing android version. The latest released versions of android are 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.0 Honeycomb, 3.1 Honeycomb, 3.2 Honeycomb, 4.0 Ice cream sandwich. The 2.3 Gingerbread version uses a refined user interface, with soft key facility, and native code support along with support for Near Field Communication. 3.0 Honeycomb was further developed for tablet phones which are made for supporting phone devices with large screens and new features related to user interface.

It also allows multi-core processors, full encryption facility, acceleration for hardware and graphics. This version of android was first seen in Motorola Xoom tablet which was released into the market in February 2011. 3.1 Honeycomb was the next version released for android mobiles in May, 2011. It was designed with better features which allowed extra input support devices, USB host for transferring facility from camera or devices along with applications like Google Movies and Books apps. 3.2 Honeycomb android mobile phones version was the next upgraded platform released in July 2011.

It added on the new screen feature "zoom-to-fill" and allowed the facility of loading media files directly from SD card. It also had extended screen support API and was first launched in Huawei MediaPad which is a tablet phone. Among all of these, the most up-to-date and recent version used in android phones is 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It was first launched on October19, 2011 with added-on features like face detection, monitoring the data usage on the network, social networking, app folder, offline mail search and various other such features.

The features and specifications that come along with android mobiles are those related to handset layout, storage, connectivity, messaging, multiple language facility and web browser. Other such notable features are java support, media support, streaming media support, additional hardware support, multi-touch, bluetooth, video calling, tethering, screen capture and storage. Android phones are built with almost all the features that one could ask for. The prices of these phones are dependent on the extra features and facilities in-built in the handset. The more advanced the features the greater the price. So what are waiting for? Choose your pick from the amazing range of android mobile phones on offer and stay ahead of your times.