WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ANDROID ?

ANDROID  HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS ANDROID?

A Software platform and operating system for mobile. Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.

It is Based on the Linux kernel  version 2.6.Emulator:Mac,Windows,Linux. Android was found way back in 2003.It was developed in Palo Alto, California. Android was developed by the Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White.  Android was purchased by the GOOGLE in AUGUST,2005 for 50 million $.

Android Logo

Android Logo

OHA (Open Handset Alliance)

A business alliance consisting of 47 companies to develop open standards for mobile devices.

Open  Handset  Alliance(OHA)

What is OHA?

It’s consortium of several companies. This group of companies are allowed to use source code of Android and develop applications. Reason for Nokia not to develop Android Mobiles is Nokia is not part of OHA.

FEATURES OF ANDROID

Android is not a single piece of hardware. Android supports wireless communication using:-GSM Technology,3G Networks, 4G Networks, 802.11 Wi-Fi Networks,GPS,Compass and accelerometer, Bluetooth Connectivity. Android is a multi-process system, in which each application (and parts of the system) runs in its own process. Interface that is better than the previous touch screen mobiles. User gets millions of applications that user cannot get in any other mobile operating system.Android supports  advanced audio/video/still media formats such as MPEG-4, H.264, MP3, and AAC, AMR, JPEG, PNG, GIF.  Developing an android application is not tough using SDK(standard development kit) and java emulator we can easily develop applications that we want.

ANDROID  ARCHITECTURE LINUX KERNEL

Android relies on Linux Version 2.6 for core System Services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack and driver model. The Kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.

ANDROID ARCHITECTURE RUNTIME

Every  Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik Virtual Machine (DVM).Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently .The Dalvik VM executes  files in the Dalvik Executable(.dex) format  which is optimized for minimal memory footprint. The VM is register-based,and runs classes compiled by a java language compiler that have been transformed into the the .dex format by the included “dx tool”. The  Dalvik VM  relies on the Linux Kernel for underlying  functionality such as threading and low-level  memory management.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS

Other then Android there are several other mobile operating system which is used. Symbian, iOS, windows this are one of the most used mobile operating systems.

VERSIONS OF ANDROID

Android Versions

Android Versions

Android Beta

First Version of Android. The focus of Android beta is testing incorporating  usability. Android  beta will generally have many more problems on speed and performance.

Android Astro 1.0

First full version of android. Released on September 23, 2008.Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. Quite slow in operating. Copy and paste feature in the web browser is not present.

Android Cupcake 1.5

Released on April 30, 2009. Added auto-rotation option. Copy and Paste feature added in the web browser. Increased speed and performance but not upto  required level.

Android Donut 1.6

Released on September 15, 2009. Voice search and Search box were added.  Faster OS boot times and fast web browsing experience. Typing is quite slower.

Android Éclair 2.0/2.1

Released on October 26, 2009.Bluetooth 2.1 support. Improved typing speed on virtual keyboard,  with smarter dictionary but  no Adobe flash media support.

Android Froyo 2.2

Released on  May 20, 2010.Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 Improved Application launcher with better browser. No internet calling.

Android Gingerbread 2.3

Released on  December 6, 2010. Updated User Interface with high efficiency and speed. Internet calling. One touch word selection and copy/paste. New keyboard for faster word input. More successful version of Android than previous versions. But doesn’t  supports multi-core processors.

Android Honeycomb 3.0

Released on February 22, 2011.Support for multi-core processors. Ability to encrypt all user data. This version of android is only available for tablets.

Android IceCreamSandwich(ICS) 4.0

Released on  November 14, 2011. Virtual button in the UI. A new typeface family for the UI, Roboto. Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background.

Android Jellybean 4.1

Released on June 27, 2012.Smoother user interface. Multitasking  tabs and functions.

Android Kit Kat

Latest version of Android ,Faster Multitasking ,Emoji Everywhere, Smarter Caller ID,Released  on 2014.

LIMITATIONS

Making source code available to everyone inevitably invites the attention of  hackers. Android operating system uses more amount of battery as compared to normal mobile phones. As there are so many user sometimes it becomes difficult to connect all the users. As we call Android is world of applications we continuously need to connected with the internet which is not possible for all the users.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

Android is now stepping up in next level of mobile internet. There are chances of Android Mobile sales becomes more then iPhone in next two years. Google may launch another version of android that starts with L  because Google is launching all the android versions in the alphabetical order. There are chances of Android may become the widely used operating system in world. And also till date Android  is the most Running and Successful Operating System in the World.Android is also available in cheap phones starting from INR 2000.Also almost all applications are available free and low cost  in Play Store .

 

 

 

2 Comments

  1. soyeb June 19, 2014
    • sumesh dhar June 19, 2014

Leave a Reply to sumesh dhar Cancel reply

CommentLuv badge