Android Programming
Introduction to Android
· Android is an open source and Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.
· Android was developed by the Open Handset Alliance, led by Google, and other companies.
· Android is an open source software package that was developed primarily to improve the mobile user experience and has now become the best-selling operating system for mobile devices.
· Android is now a part of Google and the Open Handset Alliance, and the current version of the Android operating system is Oreo (version 8.0), which was released in August 2017.
· Android is a complete set of software for mobile devices such as tablet computers, notebooks, smartphones, electronic book readers, set-top boxes etc.
· Android contains a linux-based Operating System, middleware and key mobile applications.
· Android offers a unified approach to application development for mobile devices
· The source code for Android is available under free and open source software licenses.
· Android can be thought of as a mobile operating system. But it is not limited to mobile only. It is currently used in various devices such as mobiles, tablets, televisions etc.
· Android is developed by Google and later the OHA (Open Handset Alliance).
· The first beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) was released by Google in 2007 where as the first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008.
· On June 27, 2012, at the Google I/O conference, Google announced the next Android version, 4.1 Jelly Bean.
· Jelly Bean is an incremental update, with the primary aim of improving the user interface, both in terms of functionality and performance.
· Java language is mainly used to write the android code even though other languages can be used.