Android System and Its Features - Coursework Example

What is Android? The beginning of 21st century is marked by rapid growth in the field of electronic equipments and communication means. Different softwares and hardware combinations have been introduced that have made communication possible. While previous century was dominated by forces like closed source softwares and operating systems that allowed limited modifications, limited advancements .Different operating systems have been introduced over last decade and a half and lots of advancements have taken place in them .The smart phones introduction have set different high standards that made it necessary to have such advanced and state of the operating systems that would support those cell phones and gadgets. In This way many forces have emerged that introduced open source softwares and operating systems that gave a total new shape to the world of communications and hand held devices. One of them in this field was Android .Android is an open source operating system that is widely in use in smart phones and portable computers in form of laptops and tablets. Android came into existence in the early years of first decade of current century when number of proponents sat together and decided on introducing a platform that would compete the existing players . Andy Rubin and Nick Sears are considered as the founders of this innovation. According to them, their aim was to create that would meet the customers’ requirements in a better and more efficient way. Their initial logo at that time can be termed as “smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner’s location and preferences “. Android is not only limited to operating system but also provides softwares ,middleware and several other applications that are largely in public use today .It is termed as the first complete, open and free mobile platform .The applications so created are applicable and executable on Microsoft Windows Vista, Linux, and Mac OS X . The Kernel is based on Linux kernel while the Application Program Interface (A.P.I) is written in Language C. It further makes use of Dalvik Virtual Machine (D.V.M) . By 2010 Android was a major market force in the smart phones arena and powered by Google, it was ranked amongst top sellers of smart phone platforms for the year 2010 .Mainly dominating the smart phones and Tablets market. Different versions are available in the market. Various versions exist in the market and number of updates and new applications have been introduced over the period of time each aiming to bring about more advancements and improvement and user friendly features into the setup. Few of the recent releases include 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.0 Honeycomb, and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich .3.0 honey Comb was focused on Tablet while the 4.0 version brought more advancements to the smart phone platform. Salient features of the operating system include connectivity of almost all sorts ranging from GSM TO WIMAX; In case of media support it supports large number of video and audio formats ranging from H.264 to MPEG-4,MP3,MIDI.other features include multi touch support, multi-tasking, Global Positioning System . Although the previous year (2010) saw Android as the most dominant force in the market of smart phones and tablets, it cannot be termed as a perfectly smooth sail and Android does face certain problems in form of vulnerabilities, competition, improvements. The updates are termed are tedious and when compared to other platforms they are belived to give the customers a tough time while upgrading to any latest version.To some people Android doesn’t invest into the customer awareness in case of the new releases and hence awareness and customer guidance is found missing in case of new versions being released . The issue of Malware poses a serious threat to the integrity of Android as the best platform for the smart phones and tablets, and recently Google had to withdraw couple of Applications from market due to the reason of malware induced .Google in this regard has setup security teams that look into the matters and make sure such things don’t happen again .Fragmentation is seen as a serious issue ,although Google has promised steps towards its earliest resolving .Business class is considering the malware factor as a hitch towards shifting their whole enterprise onto Android platform, and Google needs to take serious and timely actions in this regard. Couple of years from its inception it was acquired by Google Inc. The project was further extended under the umbrella of Open Handset Alliance that ensures total wireless medium .Founded in 2007 and covers large number of mobile companies under its belt. The group members range from chip makers to software developers to handset manufactures to service providing companies .All group of entities is established that complement each other in a greater way .The Open Handset alliance started off with prime aim of removing the hindrances faced by mobile users and overall community that stood in the way of easy communication and it was termed as Android Project. Participation of a mega player like Google Inc made it possible and spread the word all over the world. Notable members of the Open Handset Alliance include Samsung, HTC, Motorola, along with other semi conductor companies that include Texas Instruments, Intel and NVIDIA. In case of service providers large number of service providers from different continents have come and started operating under the shed of O.H.A . The three features, openness, free and complete are defended by the makers in such a way that they believe the designers and developers have complete access to the source code being used. In case of completeness it is being argued that it provides all the features that would fulfill the requirements of customers, and based on the customers’ requirements of modern times the design specifications are being created. Finally the free part is supported by the idea that there is no licensing fee charged nor is there any royalties attached. These are few of the characteristic features that separate Android from other operating systems that are around in market, and this is one of the reasons for rapid growth of Android amongst consumers .The architecture so established is completely user friendly and designed in such a way that it is makes usage totally swift. Its is completely compatible with architectures like ARM,X86, and other architectures Other characteristic features of Android includes the multiple layer of security provided by Android makes it a distinguishing feature of the incumbent operating system and programs are made secure through multiple layers of automatic management scheme .It is termed as power friendly platform and low memory consumer. Improved graphics feature comes as part of package with Android and with 2D Vector graphics scheme that is antialiased the sound and graphics quality is just what the customer expects .Finally a salient feature of Android is its Portability and compatibility with number of hard wares .Programs are run and executed in Java . Few parts of the kernel are licensed under the body of General Public License (GPU) A step further was taken by Google Inc in this regard that was called Android Open Source Project ( AOSP),The main aim was to provide transparency and full participation rights to the community and hence ensure a more smooth and rapid means of developments that would occur over period of time .The Community is involved in the decision making, based on the market situation and public orientation and the technology trends, the community puts up its recommendations and in the context of those proposals further advancements are obtained .Part of the community constitutes the Core technical team which is assigned the task of looking into matters like Preparing guidelines for future releases, any patches releases that might be needed and provide approval for future projects that might be needed as a future vision team task . All these features make Android a complete package and is thereby seen as the trend of the present and a prospect of future that will definitely give its competitors a tough time in coming days . Bibliography: 1-Phan, Thomas, Rebecca Montanari, and Petros Zerfos. Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services: First International Icst Conference, Mobicase 2009, San Diego, Ca, Usa, October 26-29, 2009, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010. Internet resource. 2- Dwivedi, Himanshu, Chris Clark, and David V. Thiel. Mobile Application Security. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print. 3-Hashimi, Sayed Y, Satya Komatineni, and Dave MacLean. Pro Android 2. New York: Apress, 2010. Print. 4-Stark, Jonathan. Building Android Apps with Html, Css, and Javascript. Sebastopol, CA: OReilly, 2010. Print. 5-Tyler, Jason. App Inventor for Android: Build Your Own Apps-No Experience Required!Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: John Wiley, 2011. Print. 6-DiMarzio, J F. Android: A Programmers Guide. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print. 7- (Android, 2009) Android. (2009). Introduction to Android. 21. 8- Conder, Shane, and Lauren Darcey. Android Wireless Application Development: By Shane Conder, Lauren Darcey. United States?: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009. Internet resource. 9- Udell, Sterling. Pro Web Gadgets: Across Iphone, Android, Windows, Mac, Igoogle and More. Berkeley, Calif: Apress, 2009. Internet resource. 10- Murphy, Mark L. Beginning Android 2. New York: Apress, 2010. Internet resource 11- http://www.appbrain.com/stats/number-of-android-apps 12- http://androidandme.com/2009/11/uncategorized/google-changes-direction-with-android-open-source-project/ Read More