A Note On The Android Operating System

For anyone out there who is unaware of, or is simply looking for a good insight as to what Android is with respects to developing in some detail, here is some interesting information regarding it.

"Android" is the name of a Smart-Phone Operating System created by Google, which was derived from the PC Operating System: "Linux". This is a very broad statement, in that the details regarding this matter are somewhat technical and I am aiming to simply attend to the most useful information to the most readers. Launched in mid 2008 on the G1 (Google 1 [it is known by a few other names too]), Android is a versatile and deeply customisable operating system which can cater to the needs of a huge variety of users without compromise. It is available openly to all phone manufacturers, but requires their product's hardware passes a series of technical tests (around 20,000 individual tests.) This ensures consistency throughout the handsets, quality in the components within them and also makes the development of "applications" far easier.

Much like Apple's iPhone, Android has an "online" marketplace where all users can download various "apps", or "applications", ranging from games, utilities, entertainment and so on. These "apps" are all developed separately from Google (bar "Maps", "Gmail" and "Market") and in many cases are produced by small development teams, or even 1 single developer. Unlike Apple however, Android is completely open to the developer industry, with a much smaller license fee (around $30) and instant publishings of the developer's applications. While many will argue that this causes the market to be filled with content that is of poor build or even malicious, it allows the market to grow quickly and for the developers to reach their users without any fuss.

Although Android development is intended for the Java coding language, it is highly adaptable to other languages such as C and C++ with integration, not to mention the powerful IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) such as Eclipse to work within.

Google has announced that Android is running on over 100 Million devices to date, with over 500,000 new devices being activated across the globe with each passing day. Android is currently the top dog in the Smart Phone market, beating Apple, Blackberry and others such as the Windows Phone. It is also only demonstrating that it will remain the leader from years to come. If you have an interest in getting involved with Android then hop on over to http://developer.android.com and see how to get started. There is a huge amount of support whether you know zilch or even if you are an experienced developer, in one way or another you will be able to get your hands dirty in no time at all!
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