What is Android?

Overview of Android:

         Android is a mobile operating system (OS) based on the Linux kernel. it is designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers, with specialized user interfaces for televisions (Android TV), cars (Android Auto), and wrist watches (Android Wear) with a user interface based on direct manipulation. It is the most widely used mobile OS and, as of 2014, the highest selling OS overall.

         Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California in October 2003 by Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc.), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (headed design and interface development at WebTV).Later the development was under taken by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).

         The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a consortium of 84 firms to develop open standards for mobile devices.The OHA was established on 6 November 2007, led by Google with 47 members including mobile handset makers, application developers, some mobile carriers and chip makers. Android, the flagship software of the alliance, is based on an open source license and has competed against mobile platforms from Apple, Microsoft, Nokia (Symbian), HP (formerly Palm), Samsung Electronics / Intel (Tizen, bada), and BlackBerry.

         Since 2008, Android has seen numerous updates which have incrementally improved the operating system, adding new features and fixing bugs in previous releases. Each major release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat; for example, version 1.5 Cupcake was followed by 1.6 Donut. Version 4.4.4 KitKat appeared as a security-only update; it was released on June 19, 2014, shortly after 4.4.3 was released.

         As of November 2014, the newest version of the Android operating system, Android 5.0 "Lollipop", is available for selected devices.

         List of OS versions:

•    Alpha (1.0)
•    Beta (1.1)
•    Cupcake (1.5)
•    Donut (1.6)
•    Eclair (2.0 – 2.1)
•    Froyo (2.2 – 2.2.3)
•    Gingerbread (2.3 – 2.3.7)
•    Honeycomb (3.0 – 3.2.6)
•    Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0 – 4.0.4)
•    Jelly Bean (4.1 –4 .3.1)
•    KitKat (4.4 – 4.4.4)
•    Lollipop (5.0)  

     Features & Specifications:

      Android is a powerful Operating System supporting a large number of applications in Smart Phones.These applications make life more comfortable and advanced for the users. Hardware that support Android are mainly based on ARM architecture platform. Some of the current features and specifications of android are:

•       Application framework
•       Dalvik virtual machine
•       Integrated Browser
•       Optimized graphics
•       SQLite
•       Media support
•       GSM Technology
•       Bluethooth, EDGE,3G,Wi-fi
•       Camera,GPS, Compass etc

     Applications:

      Android comes with an Android market which is an online software store. It was developed by Google. It allows Android users to select, and download applications developed by third party developers and use them. There are around 2.0 lack+ games, application and widgets available on the market for users.

     Android applications are written in java programming language. Android is available as open source for developers to develop applications which can be further used for selling in android market. There are around 2,00,000 applications developed for android with over 3 billion+ downloads. Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. For software development, Android provides Android SDK (Software development kit). 

These are the basics of Android applications:

• Android applications are composed of one or more application components (activities, services, content providers, and broadcast receivers)
• Each component performs a different role in the overall application behavior, and each one can be activated individually (even by other applications)
• The manifest file must declare all components in the application and should also declare all application requirements, such as the minimum version of Android required and any hardware configurations required
• Non-code application resources (images, strings, layout files, etc.) should include alternatives for different device configurations (such as different strings for different languages)

Android Architecture Next >