Android is an operating system designed for touchscreen electronic devices: smartphones, tablets, digital players, watches, game consoles, smartbooks, TVs and other devices. The system supports the installation of various programs on the device that use the entire set of its functions.
Building an Android system
The Android system is based on the Linux kernel and the Java virtual machine created by Google. The OS was originally developed by Android Inc., which was later acquired by Google. The first device running the new OS was the HTC Dream smartphone, released on September 23, 2008.
Android has become the most popular operating system thanks to the revolutionary SCRUM methodology. The system allows you to create Java applications that control the device using the developed Google libraries.
Although the system was originally intended to improve control of digital cameras, the breakthrough came in 2004 with the implementation of wireless connectivity to a PC. Just at this time, the market for stand-alone digital cameras was not very large with a downward trend. Therefore, the management of Android Inc decided to switch to using their development inside cell phones. In 2005, the company was acquired by Google.
The first version of the OS (Android 1.0) was publicly released in September 2008 and did not receive a name.
Android development history
An important stage in the history of Android began in September 2008, when the very first Android smartphone was announced by the manufacturers. The pop-up 3.2-inch touchscreen phone was equipped with a physical QWERTY keyboard. It has combined a number of other products and services of the company: Google Maps, YouTube, HTML browser and Google search engine.
The OS has implemented the first version of the Android Market application store, to which Google assigned a special role. This was only the beginning of the promotion of the product on the mobile market.
Almost 10 years after the official Android phone debuted on the market, Google made the decision to make the OS open source. This is what allowed the system to become very popular with the leading manufacturers of mobile phones. A few years after the launch of Android 1.1, gadgets running the OS were everywhere.
Android manufacturers realized that the company could make money by offering other services it uses, including apps. The famous logo for Android, a green robot, was created by Irina Blok, a Google employee.
Google annually assigns a name to a new version of its system, according to the established tradition, they are given by the name of sweet desserts. Before the official launch, a statue is made in the shape of this culinary dessert and placed on the lawn in front of the Visitor Center in Mountain View, California. The statues are crafted from expanded polystyrene foam using a solid filler, colorfully painted and sent to California for the official opening.
Released versions of Android
The company releases new versions of the system almost every year. At the moment there are 9 implemented versions. Android has become the most popular mobile operating system in the world, beating many competitors.
Android 2.3 called Gingerbread was released in September 2010. It is currently considered the oldest system in use. Google still lists it on its official version update page. The developer claims that in 2017, less than 1% of devices used Gingerbread and users can get an update to the Android version on their phone.
A short range feature has been added to Gingerbread for smartphones with the required hardware. The Nexus S was the first phone to use Gingerbread with NFC hardware and was developed in partnership with Samsung. Gingerbread also added support for cameras and video chat in Google Talk.
The tablet version of Android Honeycomb was presented by the developer for installation only on tablets and mobile devices with large screens. It was demonstrated in February 2011 along with the first Motorola Xoom tablet. The system included updates in the form of an improved user interface for large displays and a notification bar at the bottom.
Honeycomb offered specific features that could not be handled by smaller displays on smartphones. It was also Google's response to Apple's new iPad in 2010. However, while Honeycomb was available, some tablets still came with smartphone-based versions of Android 2.x. As a result, Honeycomb turned out to be a version that was not really needed, as Google decided to integrate most of the features into the next version 4.0 called Ice Cream Sandwich.
Android 4.4 KitKat was the first OS version to actually use the previously registered trade name for sweets in its name. It didn't have a lot of new features, but thanks to some solutions it helped to really expand the general Android market. The version turned out to be optimized for devices with 512 MB of RAM. For the first time with Android 4.4 preinstalled, the Nexus 5 smartphone was released. Despite the fact that the KitKat version was launched more than 4 years ago, there are still many devices that use it. The current Google Platform Version Update page states that 15.1% of all Android devices are using the KitKat version.
The next version of Android 5.0 Lollipop was released in the fall of 2014 and immediately became a major breakthrough in the overall OS line. It was the first version to use Google's new material design language, which, for example, made it easier to perform lighting and shadow effects to simulate a paper-based representation of the Android user interface. The UI has also received some changes for Lollipop, rich lockscreen notifications, including an updated navigation bar and a whole host of new features.
In the subsequent Android 5.1 update, the manufacturer added a few more changes. These included official support for two SIM cards in one device, device protection, HD voice calls, so that fraudulent activities of strangers were blocked on the smartphone even after a factory reset. Google's Nexus 6 phone, as well as the Nexus 9 tablet, were the first devices to be preinstalled with a version of Lollipop. Today, according to statistics, Android 5.0 Lollipop powers 29% of all active Android devices.
Latest Android developments
The latest version of Android 2018 implements the extension of the autonomy of applications. Google launched the first preview of the version on March 7, 2018. And on August 6, the company officially launched the final version of Android 9.0 and gave it the official name Pie.
Android 9.0 has a host of new features designed to improve smartphone battery life, including using in-device learning to predict which apps the user might use.
Today Google is in the process of developing a completely new OS called Fuchsia. It is assumed that it can support not only mobile devices: from smartphones to tablets, but even desktop PCs. Google remains extremely committed to building the brand and is even looking to expand the mobile and tablet OS to other devices, including Android Auto, Android TV, and WearOS.
