Android OS: What's all the hype about?

What is  Android?

The Android OS for mobile phones has been getting a lot of attention lately, but what is it all about? Where did it come from? And what is the future of Android? Android is based on modified Linux kernel originally developed by Android Inc. Many people believe that the Android OS is owned by Google. It is not. The Android OS is free and open-source software which gives anybody the ability to learn, modify, or improve the design of the software. While Google does not own Android, it did create the development tools necessary to write applications which will run on the Android OS.

Who owns Android?

Although Android is open source software and can be modified by anyone as long as it complies with the open-source agreement, it is maintained by a consortium of 65 companies, with its goal of developing reliable open source software that has the ability to run on mobile devices. The group formed in November 2007 and included all the major giants in the mobile phone industry. Software companies, semiconductor manufacturers , as well as mobile phone manufacturers were all a part of the consortium. Some of the leading companies in the consortium include: Intel, Samsung, Google, HTC, T-Mobile as well as many other companies.

When was it first released?

On October 21st 2008 Android 1.0 was officially released to the public for development. While there were a number of updates for the platform the first major update was released on April 30th 2009. Named Cupcake, the updated version of Android was based on the Linux Kernel 2.6.27. This update made major improvements to Androids video capabilities, gave additional Bluetooth features, added widgets, and supported additional copy and paste abilities.

Updates

The next update was released roughly 6 months later on September 16th 2009. This time named Donut, the Android 1.6 upgrade was based on the Linux Kernel 2.6.29. The improvements in this release included an integrated camera, categories for photos, as well as many improvements to their voice activated commands and text to speech capabilities.

Keeping up with their pattern of releasing an update every 6 months, Android 2.0 was released on October 26th 2009. This update based on the Linux Kernel 2.6.29. It was embraced by users as it improved the OS in a number of ways. Android 2.0 featured a new GUI, new browser, exchange support, enhanced Google Maps support, as well as improvements to the source code to optimize hardware speeds and support for different screen resolutions.

What makes it good?

The Android OS has a number of features that are common to other platforms. Like other mobile phone OS’s it supports SMS & MMS messaging, has a web browser, java support, media support & Bluetooth. But what really sets the Android OS apart from other platforms is its development tools and resources. The SDK features a debugger, emulator, & libraries. The SDK also has extensive documentation, tutorials, and sample code. The SDK is also supported under a number of software platforms including Linux x86, Mac OS X, Windows XP & Windows Vista. Because the code is open-source and there is a wealth of knowledge on the platform, developers have been able to tweak the source code to run on other non-android mobile phones. Maybe the most notable is a hacked version of Android for the Apple iPhone.

First Android Device

The first Android based mobile phone to be released was the HTC Dream, more commonly known in the U.S. as the T-Mobile G1. It was released October 22, 2008 and featured a large 480 X 320 capable touch screen, a dual-core ARM based processor, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The phone gained much popularity and continues to be the #10 selling mobile phone in the U.S., as of January 2010. Because of its popularity a vulnerability was discovered in the early version of the phones firmware, allowing a user to gain root access to the phone. This process soon became known as rooting. The ability to root a G1 gave the user the ability to install versions of Android running on the Debian flavor of Linux, the ability to install custom themes, and the ability to setup a wireless network through the phones Wi-Fi capabilities so that computers can connect to the internet via the phone.

The Future of Android

To date there are 20 Android devices on the worldwide market, with most of the phones being developed by HTC, Motorola, or Samsung. The future does look bright for Android however. To date it has been announced there will be 21 Smartphone to use the Android platform. In addition to the Smartphone, it has also been announced that 23 tablet PC’s, 2 E-Readers, 3 Netbooks, and even one TV will use the Android Platform on their devices. With this many devices announced only 2 years after its initial release it looks like the Android platform will be around for a long time to come.