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Android Introduction

What is Android?

Android is an open source operating system based on Linux with a Java programming interface
for mobile devices such as Smartphone (Touch Screen Devices who supports Android OS) as
well for Tablets too.

Android was developed by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which is led by Google.
The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is consortium of multiple companies like Samsung, Sony,
Intel and many more to provide a services and deploy handsets using android platform.

OHA (Open Handset Alliance)

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a business alliance that was created for the purpose of
developing open mobile device standards. The OHA has approximately 86 (2017)/84 (2020)
member companies, including HTC, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm and Google. The
OHA's main product is the Android platform - the world's most popular smartphone platform.

What is Platforms?

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Any hardware or software environment in which a program runs, is known as a platform. Since
Android has its own runtime environment (JRE) and API, it is called platform.

Other Platforms:

iOS, Symbian, Windows Phone-7, Blackberry OS etc.

Good Platforms

 Android – Open source mobile OS developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by
Google. Based on Linux 2.6 kernel
 iOS – Apple’s proprietary mobile OS, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. Derived from OS X, very
UNIX like
 Symbian – acquired by Nokia 2008
 Windows Phone 7 – Microsoft – Kin, discontinued 6 weeks after initial launch
 Blackberry OS – RIM (Research in Motion), proprietary OS

The Smartphone Platform

With the iPhone being the first to the marketplace it sets the configuration of the Smartphone
Platform
 3G/4G/5G… connectivity
 WiFi connectivity
 Bluetooth connectivity
 Accelerometer w/compass
 Ambient light sensor
 Proximity sensor
 GPS
 Gyroscope

Android Features

Android is a powerful open source operating system which provides a lot of great features, those
are
 It’s an open source and we can customize the OS based on our requirements.
 It support a connectivity for GSM, CDMA, WIFI, NFC, Bluetooth, etc. for telephony or data
transfer. It will allow us to make or receive a calls / SMS messages and we can send or
retrieve a data across mobile networks
 By using WIFI technology we can pair with other devices using apps
 Android have a multiple APIs to support a location-based services such as GPS
 We can perform all data storage related activities by using light weight database SQLite.
 It have a wide range of media supports like AVI, MKV, FLV, MPEG4 etc. to play or record
variety of audio / video and having a different image formats like JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP,
MP3, etc.
 It has an extensive support for multimedia hardware control to perform playback or
recording using camera and microphone
 It has an integrated open source Webkit layout based web browser to support HTML5,
CSS3
 It supports a multi-tasking, we can move from one task window to another and multiple
applications can run simultaneously
 It will give a chance to reuse the application components and the replacement of native
applications.
 We can access the hardware components like Camera, GPS, and Accelerometer
 It has a support for 2D/3D/4G Graphics

Table: Android Features

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Sr. No. Feature & Description

1 Beautiful UI
Android OS basic screen provides a beautiful and intuitive user interface.

2 Connectivity
GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC and
WiMAX.

3 Storage
SQLite, a lightweight relational database, is used for data storage purposes.

4 Media support
H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, AAC 5.1, MP3, MIDI,
Ogg Vorbis, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP.

5 Messaging
SMS and MMS

6 Web browser
Based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8
JavaScript engine supporting HTML5 and CSS3.

7 Multi-touch
Android has native support for multi-touch which was initially made available in
handsets such as the HTC Hero.

8 Multi-tasking
User can jump from one task to another and same time various application can run
simultaneously.

9 Resizable widgets
Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink
them to save space.

10 Multi-Language
Supports single direction and bi-directional text.

11 GCM
Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service that lets developers send short
message data to their users on Android devices, without needing a proprietary
sync solution.

12 Wi-Fi Direct
A technology that lets apps discover and pair directly, over a high-bandwidth peer-
to-peer connection.

13 Android Beam
A popular NFC-based technology that lets users instantly share, just by touching
two NFC-enabled phones together.

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 Fig: Android Features

Android Versions and API Levels

 API (Application Program Interface) Level is an integer value that uniquely identifies the
framework API revision offered by a version of the Android platform.
 Each Android version is assigned a unique integer identifier, called the API Level.
Therefore, each Android version corresponds to a single Android API Level. Because
users install apps on older as well as the most recent versions of Android, real-world
Android apps must be designed to work with multiple Android API levels.

Since the release, Android has gone through number of updates. Here is the list of its different
versions and their code names:

Android History

Initially Google launched a first version of Android platform on Nov 5, 2007 from that onwards
Google released a lot of android versions under a codename based on desserts, such as Apple
Pie, Banana Bread, Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Jellybeans, Kitkat, Lollipop,
marshmallow, etc. and made a lot of changes and additions to the android platform.

In 2007, Google released a first beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) and
the first commercial version of Android 1.0 (with name Alpha), was released in September 2008.

In 2012, Google released another version of android, 4.1 Jelly Bean. It’s an incremental update
and it improved a lot in terms of user interface, functionality and performance.

In 2014, Google announced another Latest Version, 5.0 Lollipop. In Lollipop version Google
completely revamped the UI by using Material Designs, which is good for the User Interface as
well for the themes related.

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All the source code for Android is available free on Git-Hub, Stack overflow and many more
websites. Google publishes most of the code under the Apache License version 2.0.

Following table shows the version details of android which is released by Google from 2007 to till
date.

For each version Google has made a lot of changes and introduced lot of new features due to
that the usage of android in mobile market increased drastically.

Table: Android versions with API Level

Version Release Date Code Name API Level

1.0 23 Sep, 2008 Alpha/Apple Pie/NA 1

1.1 9 Feb, 2009 Banana Bread/NA 2

1.5 30 Apr, 2009 Cupcake 3

1.6 15 Sep, 2009 Donut 4

2.0/2.1 26 Oct, 2009 Éclair 5-7

2.2 20 May, 2010 Froyo 8

2.3 6 Dec, 2010 Gingerbread 9-10

3.0/3.1/3.2 22 Feb, 2011 Honeycomb 11-13

4.0 18 Oct, 2011 Ice Cream Sandwich 14-15

4.1/4.2/4.3 9 Jul, 2012 Jelly Bean 16-18

4.4 31 Oct, 2013 KitKat 19-20

5.0/5.1 12 Nov, 2014 Lollipop 21-22

6.0 5 Oct, 2015 Marshmallow 23

7.0 2016 End Nougat 24

8.0 21 Aug, 2017 Oreo 26

9.0 6 Aug, 2018 Pie 28

10 23 Sept, 2019 Android 10

Android 11

Android 9.0 Popcorn (by Google)

Android 9.0 Pastry Android 9.0 Pasta

Android Pastilla Android 9.0 Puff
Android 9.0 Pandoro Android 9.0 Panna Cotta
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Android 9.0 Parfait Android 9.0 Popover
Android 9.0 PanCake Android 9.0 Peanut Brittle
Android 9.0 Pumpkin Pie Android 9.0 Popsicle
Android 9.0 Pecan Pie Android 9.0 Poached Pears
Android 9.0 Praline Android 9.0 Pastille
Android 9.0 Petit Four Android 9.0 Pinka
Android Piano Android Pillow
Android Pilot Android Pudding
Android Pie

Other suggested Android 9.0 version

 Penuche
 Pignolo
 Pizzelle
 Pecan Pie
 Pavlova
 Profiterole
 Pop Tart

Android P Indian Names

 Android 9.0 Peda
 Android Pista
 Android Pilu

Key additions of Different Versions

No Code Key Additions/Features

Name/Version
1. No Google Android 1.0 officially arrived September 23rd, 2008, as the
Codename (v1.0) only release of Android (so far) to not include a codename
2. Petit Four (v1.1) "Petit Four" began rolling out in early 2009 as the first update for the
new Google Android mobile operating system.
3. Cupcake (v1.5) Speech recognition tools, a virtual keyboard, video upload support
for YouTube and support for live data feeds and live folders.
4. Donut (v1.6) Support for CDMA smartphones, additional screen sizes and a text-
to-speech engine.
5. Eclair (v2.0) Support for multi-touch devices, new browser interface, Microsoft
Exchange support, single interface for managing multiple online
accounts, soft keys support, and an enhanced camera app (with
digital zoom and flash support).
6. FroYo (v2.2) USB tethering support (for turning a smartphone into a Wi-Fihotspot),
significant speed improvements, Flash 10.1 support, voice dialing
over Bluetooth, the ability to store apps on external memory cards,
updated browser with Google Chrome's V8 JavaScript.
7. Gingerbread (v2.3 Google Voice over Wi-Fi, enhanced gaming functionality, improved
) Google Apps.
8. Honeycomb (v3.0) A tablet-centric update that delivered a new interface optimized for
devices with larger screen sizes (particularly tablets), video chat
support based on Google Talk protocols, new System Bar for global
status and notifications and Action Bar for application control, tabbed
Web browsing, optimized soft keyboard and a new email interface.
9. Ice Cream A smartphone-centric update based on the Linux kernel v3.0.1 that
Sandwich (v4.0) brings many of Honeycomb's features to smartphones, including
Face Unlock facial recognition software, tabbed Web browsing
capabilities, unified social networking contacts, 1080p video
recording capabilities and video chat support based on Google Talk
protocols.
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 10. Jelly Bean (v4.1, Advanced natural language voice command capabilities akin to
v4.2 and v4.3) Apple's Siri, enhanced interface and overall responsiveness via
"Project Butter," Google Now support, an improved Web browser,
enhanced file management capabilities and more.
11. KitKat (v4.4) Full-screen immersive mode, new transitions framework, and
"Project Svelte," a project initiated to reduce the memory needs of
the Android OS. Originally internally referred to as Key Lime Pie,
Google announced in early September 2013 that it would be using
the iconic candy bar as the codename for the 4.4 Android release.
12. Lollipop (v5.0) Enhanced Material Design user interface, improved continuity across
Android devices, multiple user support, a guest user account option,
a new notification system, support for 64-bit CPUs, and more.
13. Marshmallow Now on Tap functionality and other Google Now enhancements,
(v6.0) native fingerprint authentication support, Android Pay integration,
USB Type-C support, improved battery life, better app management
and more.
14. Oreo (v8.0) Android Go minimized version of Android mobile OS, picture-in-
picture video support, Notification Grouping, Bluetooth 5 support, Wi-
Fi Aware feature, and more.
15. Pie (v9.0) Adaptive Battery, Digital Well-being Dashboard (monitors screen
time usage), App Slices, Intuitive Gestures, Adaptive Brightness, and
more.
16 Android 10 Dark mode, QR Code for WiFi, Audio features, Thermal API,
Settings Panels, Bubbles, Location permissions, Privacy,
Foldable devices, and more.
Android 11

Android Applications

 Android applications are usually developed in the Java language using the Android
Software Development Kit.
 Once developed, Android applications can be packaged easily and sold out either
through a store such as
 Google Play,
 SlideME,
 Opera Mobile Store,
 Mobango,
 F-droid and
 Amazon Appstore.

Google Play: Formerly known as the Android Market, is the official app store for Android
smartphones and tablets. Google makes software applications, music, movies and books
available for purchase and download through the store.

SlideME: A Community & Content Marketplace, uniting developers and users, offers products,
services and experience that help promote small Android developers and their creative efforts,
without locking them into any closed standards.

Opera Mobile Store: Offers a large number of applications for Android besides
other mobile platforms.

MOBANGO: A mobile community enabling mobile users to publish, convert and share user
generated content with others.

F-Droid: A software repository (or "app store") for Android applications, similar to the Google
Play store.
Amazon Appstore: An app store for the Android operating system operated by Amazon.com.
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Android Devices in Market

A device that runs Android OS comes in all shapes and sizes. Various devices that run Android
OS and Apps are as follows:
 Smartphones
 Smart-watches
 Tablets
 E-reader Devices
 Netbooks
 MP4 Players
 Internet TVs and more.

Every day more than 1 million new Android devices are activated worldwide (more than 190
countries around the world).

Android Mobile Company

A large no of mobile companies are using Android. A list of companies supporting Android in
their hardware are:

 Acer Inc
 ALCATEL ( TCL corporation )
 Bluelans Communications
 NCE casio Mobile Communications
 Cherry Mobile
 CSL
 Dell
 Garmin
 Geeks Phone
 General Mobile
 High screen
 HKC
 HTC coroporation
 Huawei
 I-mobile
 Lenovo
 LG
 Motorola
 Samsung
 Sony Ericsson
 Videocon
 ZTE

Other Mobile OSs

There are different other Mobile operating systems also present in market in competition with
Android. Apple's iOS and Windows Phone give strong competition to Android. A simple
comparison between features and specifications of latest version of Android and other Operating
Systems can be seen in the table given below.

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 Fig. Various Mobile Operating System Available In Markets

According to Canalys, In Q2 2009 Android had 2.8% market share which had grown to 33%
market share by Q4 2010 which made Android leader of smart phone OSs worldwide. The
market share for commonly used mobile OSs is shown in the following pie chart.

Fig. Diagram Showing Market Share for Commonly Used Mobile OSs

About the Brick:

 The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially available cell phone.
 First marketed in 1983, it was 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches in dimension, weighed about 2.5
pounds, and allowed us to talk for a little more than half an hour.
 It retailed for $3,995, plus hefty monthly service fees and per-minute charges.
 It made calls, and there was a simple contacts application included in the operating
system.

Martin Cooper

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Martin Cooper holds a Motorola DynaTAC A 1973 prototype of the first handheld cellular
telephone on Market Street in San Francisco in 2003.

Questions

1. Define Android and Platforms.

2. What is Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and what is its purpose?
3. Mention some good platforms with example.
4. Mention some smartphone platforms.
5. Make a list of Android features with their functions.
6. Graphically explain the Android features.
7. Make a list of Android version names, code name with their API levels.
8. Write some applications of Android.
9. What are the others Other Mobile OSS?
10. Make a list of Mobile Devices and Mobile Companies for Android.
11. Describe about Brick Model.

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