Introduction:
Android is an Open source platform based on Linux kernel and is being used in touch screen devices i.e. smart phones and tablets. It is being developed by Google. Its GUI is based on direct manipulation. It has a special UI for cars, smart televisions and watches. It uses different actions that are loosely connected to real world actions i.e. touch, swap, pinch etc. It also contains a virtual keyboard for textual inputs.
According to a survey by google over 1 billion users are using android and 71% of developers develop on android platform. There are more than 1 million applications which makes android the largest install base of all general purpose OS.
It was developed initially by Android Inc. It was financially backed up by Google and later on went on to buy it in 2005. Android was exposed in 2007 in 2007 with the formation of Open Handset Alliance which is a consortium of software, hardware and telecom companies and devoted to advancing Open standards for mobile devices.Android is being used as a base by the technology companies ready-made, customizable and low-cost OS for high-tech devices. Its open nature has attracted people to attain it as the mostly used base OS and the platform with most number of developers.
Evolution:
Evolution of Android started back in September 2008 with the release of Android 1.0 with (API level 1/2) and the version was known to be 1.0. Key features involved Android Market, status bar, Google maps with GPS, browser, voice dialing and several others. It was updated to cupcake (API level 3) in April 2009 based on Linux kernel 2.6.27. Salient features included support of third party keyboard, widgets, Animations, auto pairing and stereo support for Bluetooth. Another Update was disclosed in September 2009 with API level 4 and named as Donut. It had multilingual speech support, camera features, betters GUI and WVGA screen resolution with expanded gestures and gestures builder development tool. Soon after in October 2009 Éclairs (Android 2.0) was released with multi accounts with better synchronization, Microsoft Exchange for better email experience, addition of screen resolutions and addition of live wallpapers. By the last decade of May 2010 Google came up with Froyo (API level 8) with enhanced speed, applications with JIT compilation, USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot and Cloud device management. Froyo had three small updates with bug fixes and security patches. December 2010 was a complete new experience for android with the release of Gingerbread (API level 9/10) along with the Google Nexus S. Here the adoption of Android really started. GB had better and simpler GUI, screen support, NFC, Download Manager, multi-camera support and garbage collection. GB remained till September 2011 with several bug fixes and improvements.
Honey Comb (API level 11-13) was released in Feb 2011 but its main target was wide screen i.e. tablet PCs. It used a holographic UI with action bar, multi tabs, multitasking, encryption and hardware acceleration. It was updated with external input devices and Google TV support. The view of android and usage statics moved to a new direction with the release of ICS (API level 14/15) with face unlock, roboto-fonts, auto-sync, drag n drop facilities and VPN framework with Tunnel Interface, Jelly bean (API level 16-18) was released in July 2012. It had a smoother UI, expandable notification bar, multichannel and USB audio support and several other features. Was added with two APIs with GUI and security improvements along with several other important features. Android came up with KITKAT (API level 19/20) by the last of October 2013. It was a revolution in the sense of GUI, communication and security. It included auto encryption, NFC Host based card emulation and smooth GUI. In November 2015 Android came up with their latest version Lollipop (API level 21 and 22) with a complete new Material design, Android runtime and several other revolutionary changes for better performance and enhanced battery life.
Android is an Open source platform based on Linux kernel and is being used in touch screen devices i.e. smart phones and tablets. It is being developed by Google. Its GUI is based on direct manipulation. It has a special UI for cars, smart televisions and watches. It uses different actions that are loosely connected to real world actions i.e. touch, swap, pinch etc. It also contains a virtual keyboard for textual inputs.
According to a survey by google over 1 billion users are using android and 71% of developers develop on android platform. There are more than 1 million applications which makes android the largest install base of all general purpose OS.
It was developed initially by Android Inc. It was financially backed up by Google and later on went on to buy it in 2005. Android was exposed in 2007 in 2007 with the formation of Open Handset Alliance which is a consortium of software, hardware and telecom companies and devoted to advancing Open standards for mobile devices.Android is being used as a base by the technology companies ready-made, customizable and low-cost OS for high-tech devices. Its open nature has attracted people to attain it as the mostly used base OS and the platform with most number of developers.
Evolution:
Evolution of Android started back in September 2008 with the release of Android 1.0 with (API level 1/2) and the version was known to be 1.0. Key features involved Android Market, status bar, Google maps with GPS, browser, voice dialing and several others. It was updated to cupcake (API level 3) in April 2009 based on Linux kernel 2.6.27. Salient features included support of third party keyboard, widgets, Animations, auto pairing and stereo support for Bluetooth. Another Update was disclosed in September 2009 with API level 4 and named as Donut. It had multilingual speech support, camera features, betters GUI and WVGA screen resolution with expanded gestures and gestures builder development tool. Soon after in October 2009 Éclairs (Android 2.0) was released with multi accounts with better synchronization, Microsoft Exchange for better email experience, addition of screen resolutions and addition of live wallpapers. By the last decade of May 2010 Google came up with Froyo (API level 8) with enhanced speed, applications with JIT compilation, USB tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot and Cloud device management. Froyo had three small updates with bug fixes and security patches. December 2010 was a complete new experience for android with the release of Gingerbread (API level 9/10) along with the Google Nexus S. Here the adoption of Android really started. GB had better and simpler GUI, screen support, NFC, Download Manager, multi-camera support and garbage collection. GB remained till September 2011 with several bug fixes and improvements.
Honey Comb (API level 11-13) was released in Feb 2011 but its main target was wide screen i.e. tablet PCs. It used a holographic UI with action bar, multi tabs, multitasking, encryption and hardware acceleration. It was updated with external input devices and Google TV support. The view of android and usage statics moved to a new direction with the release of ICS (API level 14/15) with face unlock, roboto-fonts, auto-sync, drag n drop facilities and VPN framework with Tunnel Interface, Jelly bean (API level 16-18) was released in July 2012. It had a smoother UI, expandable notification bar, multichannel and USB audio support and several other features. Was added with two APIs with GUI and security improvements along with several other important features. Android came up with KITKAT (API level 19/20) by the last of October 2013. It was a revolution in the sense of GUI, communication and security. It included auto encryption, NFC Host based card emulation and smooth GUI. In November 2015 Android came up with their latest version Lollipop (API level 21 and 22) with a complete new Material design, Android runtime and several other revolutionary changes for better performance and enhanced battery life.
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