Google purchased the Android platform in 2005 and launched it in 2007. Ever since the first Android powered handset came out in 2008, the popularity of Android has increased tremendously over the past few years. With every new release, Google brought in new changes, features along with the Nexus series handsets. Android has a huge worldwide smartphone market share and almost 500 million devices activated in total and 1.3 million activations per day. The Google play store (apps) has also had massive growth in the number of apps. It is also estimated that 3 out of the 4 handsets purchased in the last three months are Android. And also for the first time, Samsung Galaxy S3 sold more units than the iPhone 4S and also iPhone 5. Here is a nice infographic on the rise of Android as a smartphone OS.