Hello World!

Well… I know this is not a new term for you. About 65% of world’s smart-phones run Android! So, there might be a good chance that you’re holding an Android device as you read this! Some say that Android is the next big thing after the World War-II. But…. what is Android? How’s the little green bug-eyed bot changing the world we see? What are the future prospects of Android? Will it wash my grandson’s socks???? The answer to all these questions is pretty neat- It is the future of mobile computing! That’s it! It’s only been around six years and Android has already taken a quantum leap from its primitive form to what we see today.

The Little Green Bot

Android is a Linux based operating system designed mainly for low power devices like smartphones, tablet computers, cameras, watches, etc.  It was developed by Android Inc. which Google bought later in 2005. In the year 2007, a number of hardware, software and telecommunication giants (Google, HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, NVidia, and Wind River Systems) joined their hands and formed ‘Open Handset Alliance’. 

Fig 1.1 Open Handset Alliance Founders

The prime motive behind this alliance was to develop transparent standards and protocols for mobile phones. This was the time when Android came into limelight. It was decided to beef up Android stack with standard and open source telephony and multimedia protocols.
This is the open source code and permissive licensing that allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers.  Today, Android has the largest community of developers busy writing applications that extend device capability beyond imagination.