Early days we used mobile phones for just making phone calls. But time has changed. Now it is used for variety of purposes such as web browsing, audio/video recording, playing music, playing games and photographing. Therefore we need powerful hardware and software to fulfill those requirements.
Mobile phone's "operating system" is a very important part of the phone. There are several OS's available in the market. Android is one of them. There are other OS's such as SYMBIAN, iPhoneOS, WindowsPhone7, RIM OS, PalmOS, WebOS...and more.
Android is not just a operating system. It is a software stack that includes a middleware and key applications. Today Android has been a very popular mobile OS among other operating systems.
Android is a Linux based operating system. It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google.
Android is a Linux based operating system. It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google.
- Why Android is so popular?
Android is free - Earlier, People had to pay for the mobile OS. But Android is totally free. You can enjoy it's full functionality with free of charge.
Android is open source - Google releases Android code as open source, under the Apache Licence. Therefore lot of developers gathered around Android to develop OS and applications. Since lot of brains are working on the system, newer and newer ideas are coming in each and everyday.
Android has large number of applications - As of October 2011 there were more than 400,000 apps available for Android and number of applications downloaded from the Android Market as of December 2011 exceeded 10 billion.
- What are the Android features?
Application framework enables reuse and replacement of components. SQLite is used for structured data storage.Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF).
- What are the available Android versions now?
V1.0 - The Android beta was released on 5 November 2007.
V1.1 - Released On 9 February 2009.
V1.5 Cupcake - On 30 April 2009.
V1.6 Donut - On 15 September 2009.
V2.0 Eclair - On 26 October 2009.
V2.0.1 - Released on 3 December 2009.
V2.1 - Released on 12 January 2010.
V2.2.x Froyo
V2.2 - On 20 May 2010.
V2.2.1 - Released on 18 January 2011.
V2.2.2 - Released on 22 January 2011.
V2.2.3 - Released on 21 November 2011.
V2.3.x Gingerbread.
V2.3 - On 6 December 2010.
V2.3.3 - Released on 9 February 2011.
V2.3.4
V2.3.5 - Released on 25 July 2011.
V2.3.6 - Released on 2 September 2011.
V2.3.7
V3.x Honeycomb
V3.0 - On 22 February 2011.
V3.1 - Released on 10 May 2011.
V3.2 - Released on 15 July 2011.
V3.2.1 - Released on 20 September 2011
V3.2.2 - Released on 30 August 2011.
V4.x Ice Cream Sandwich
V.4.0.1 - Released on 19 October 2011.
V4.0.2 - Released on 28 November 2011.
V4.0.3 - Released on 16 December 2011.
