The Android OS today is installed on most of the “smart” mobile devices. As with all modern operating systems, it features its own application store called Play Market. The store library expands rapidly. According to the statistics, the growth rate of the number of game titles and mobile apps added to the Play Market daily exceed the number of new owners of Android smartphones and tablets. In fact, despite popular belief, the operating system developed by Google is installed not only on portable devices. Its overall flexibility and scalability allow developers to deploy the system on modern television sets, refrigerators and other household appliances. In case of TVs there are dedicated apps optimized to work on large screens.
Of course, Android is not an ideal choice for everyone. Even the most die-hard fans of the operating system will agree with that statement. It has its advantages as well as drawbacks. The latter include not the highest degree of safety standards. The Android OS relies on an open file system, making it much easier to be infected by viruses in contrast to iOS. From version to version the developers fix different vulnerabilities and improve the security system, but we do not recommend using Android devices without installing an antivirus solution first. Generally, among mobile developers there is a practice to implement antivirus functions into their apps. This is done to perform various maintenance tasks such as clean the cache, delete trash, unload unnecessary processes from the computer’s memory and more. However, there are also fully-fledged antivirus systems from famous development teams.
There is a wide range of software designed for Android mobile devices. In contrast to Windows, it is difficult to categorize all available options. The thing is that besides familiar media players, archivers, file manages and other useful software, there are original applications with unique functionality. It is also necessary to mention a separate category which consists of official applications from various web-services and online marketplaces.