Introduction to Android Operating System.

Introduction to Android Operating System.

Android is a mobile operating system that is based on a modified version of Linux. It was originally developed by a startup of the same name, Android, Inc. In 2005, as part of its strategy to enter the mobile space, Google purchased Android, Inc. and took over its development work (as well as its development team).
Google wanted the Android OS to be open and free, so most of the Android code was released under the open source Apache License.

What You Will Learn

1.  How the Android platform works and the basics of Android application development
2.  How to use the most popular Java IDE, Eclipse, to develop Android applications
3.  How to install and configure Eclipse for Android development 
4.  How to leverage Eclipse with the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) for C/C++
   needs
5.  How to leverage Eclipse for scripting using Android's Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A)
6.  How to debug and troubleshoot Android applications using Eclipse

Android History

Android Inc. was founded in Silicon Valley, California, in October 2003, with the
idea of providing a mobile platform that is more aware of the user’s location and
preferences.Google acquired Android Inc. in August 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of
Google Inc. Google’s main intention was to provide a fully open platform,backed by Google technologies, for both the users and the application developers.In November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was founded as a consortium to develop an open standard for mobile devices. Open Handset Alliance began its journey by announcing the Android platform.In less than a year, new members started joining this consortium.
Android become and open source initiate that is led by Googly under Open Handset Alliance's umbrella. The goal of the Android open source project is to provide an open platform to improve the mobile experience of users
Android is the First complete open and free mobile platform.

Complete: The Android platform is a robust,secure,easily upgrade,mobile platform with a comprehensive framework and well defined interfaces.it allows application developers to develop and fully blend their applications into the platform .it also provides compatibility and certification programs,so device manufacturers can design highly compliant devices

Open : The entire Android platform has been developed and provide under open source Apache licensing terms.Android does not distinguish between preloaded applications and third party applications.Developers have full access to device features and services while developing applications

Free: The Android platform does not charge any lingering royalty membership or certification fees to develop application developers. The platform.Android platform source code and software development kits are provided free of charge to application developers .The software development platform is widely available on many desktop operating systems allowing application developers to develop applications using the operating system of their choice

Today Android is one of the major players in mobile phone market.Based on the recent market analysis on average 700 thousand android devices are activated daily and more than 200 million devices are already activated. Android currently has 48% of the mobile phone market share and it's growing aridly

Android Version 

The first beta of the Android platform was released on November 5 2007. Since then, it has been through a number of updates and bug fixes.Although bug fixes are usually transparent from the application developer's perspective , updates usually mean changes and additions to the framework API .For that reason besides the Android platform version numbers,a second version number,called the API feel is used to identify the framework API that is supported
Since April 2009 each Android version has been released under a code name based on desserts,such as Eclair,Froyo and Gingerbread.This introduced a third versioning scheme to the android platform,making things even more cryptic for first-time Android application developers.When speaking of Android application development,you will often hear people say things like my application requires Eclair and above this method requires at least API level 9 and my phone got the Android 2.1 update " Understanding which version and which API level they are referring to as well as which new API is are part of which android platform version can easily become a cumbersome memory exercise.

Code name	Version number	Linux kernel version[1]	Initial release date	API level	Ref
(No codename)	1.0	?	September 23, 2008	1	[2]
Petit Four	1.1	2.6	February 9, 2009	2	[2]
Cupcake	1.5	2.6.27	April 27, 2009	3
Donut	1.6	2.6.29	September 15, 2009	4	[3]
Eclair	2.0 – 2.1	2.6.29	October 26, 2009	5 – 7	[4]
Froyo	2.2 – 2.2.3	2.6.32	May 20, 2010	8	[5]
Gingerbread	2.3 – 2.3.7	2.6.35	December 6, 2010	9 – 10	[6]
Honeycomb	3.0 – 3.2.6	2.6.36	February 22, 2011	11 – 13	[7]
Ice Cream Sandwich	4.0 – 4.0.4	3.0.1	October 18, 2011	14 – 15	[8]
Jelly Bean	4.1 – 4.3.1	3.0.31 to 3.4.39	July 9, 2012	16 – 18	[9]
KitKat	4.4 – 4.4.4	3.10	October 31, 2013	19 – 20	[10]
Lollipop	5.0 – 5.1.1	3.16	November 12, 2014	21 – 22	[11]
Marshmallow	6.0 – 6.0.1	3.18	October 5, 2015	23	[12]
Nougat	7.0 – 7.1.2	4.4	August 22, 2016	24 – 25	[13]
Oreo	8.0 – 8.1	4.10	August 21, 2017	26 – 27	[14]
Pie	9.0	4.4.107, 4.9.84, and 4.14.42	August 6, 2018	28	[15]
Android Q	10.0			2