Mobiles are not the most versatile pieces of mobile technology due to the fact of the choice of four major operating systems, iOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows phone. Each of these systems allows you to easily do a multitude of tasks, such as browse the web, play games, text, take notes, and much, much more.

Along with the versatility of mobile phone software, the hardware can also be as versatile. Most phones will vary in either resolution, display inches and system on chip, and of course, price.

Many of the top Android phones have the same hardware specs, however, due to Android being open source and ever-changing, the software will almost always be different. As of July 2013, there were 1,000,000 applications available on the Android app store, with approximately 50 billion downloads collectively.

Image credit: http://www.technologyvenue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Android.jpg

These are huge numbers, which proves that Android has a huge amount of versatility when it comes to overall software. With other devices, operating systems closely following behind with iOS having 900,000 available applications, of which 375,000 are native to the iPad. However, many argue that the quality of Android apps are better than iOS apps.

As Android is open source, it is on approximately 230 different phones worldwide, which are all unique. You have to decide on one, which can be hard as each has a different speciality. There are apps for all sorts of things now, even ones for just being rich, the app I Am Rich was featureless and cost $999.99 to buy which is the most a developer can charge for any app on the iOS App Store. The rich app was released on the 5th August 2008 and discontinued on the 6th August 2008 after eight people reportedly bought the app. Only one customer reportedly bought the app accidently and wrote the complaint “I saw this app with a few friends and we jokingly clicked ‘buy’ thinking it was a joke, to see what would happen…THIS IS NO JOKE…DO NOT BUY THIS APP AND APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THIS FROM THE APP STORE.”

As discussed before, there are a vast amount of apps you can download, here are a list of the most downloaded apps to make your life easier when looking for apps for your Android phone:

Top 20 downloaded Android apps

1. Facebook

2. WhatsApp Messenger

3. Angry Birds

4. Chrome Browser – Google

5. YouTube

6. Skype

7. Twitter

8. Adobe Flash Player 11

9. Facebook Messenger

10. Fruit Ninja Free

11. Street View on Google Maps

12. Adobe Reader

13. Voice Search

14. Google+

15. Google Search

16. Google Play Books

17. Tiny Flashlight + LED

18. Instagram

19. Google Play Music

20. Viber: Free Calls & Messages

Now you’ve seen the statistics, here is my opinion on what you should get and what you should download on your Android device.

In my opinion, I feel like the best Android phone on the market at the moment is the HTC One, however the Google Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note II are all good alternatives. I’m a design guy, so the aesthetically pleasing look of the HTC One’s aluminium body, coupled with it’s solid build quality, really does it for me.

On the HTC One, I would install the standard Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Google Chrome, along with some lesser-known apps such as Tunester (a free, minimalistic music-player), Todoist (a free productivity app) and, for frequent flyers, Smart Layover (a free app to help make the most of layovers). That is, if I was limited to a small number of apps.

What phone with what apps would you have? Tell us in the comments below!

Author Bio:

Adam Stevens is a tech boffin, as well as a writer for Intxt, a mobile marketing specialist.