By Richa Patil:
ANDROID OS is an new feature in mobile computing. It is Google’s latest operating system. Competitors to Android are the Symbian OS, Apple iOS, Window’s based mobile phones etc. Android uses a modified version of the Linux kernel. Initially it was developed by Android Inc. But later the firm was purchased by Google. Its applications are written in Java and C/C++ platform. The Android SDK (Software Development Kit) is open source and its license is free – any layman can download and can work on it.
Android SDK includes a comprehensive set of developmental tools which includes a debugger, a handset emulator (it is a virtual device of our mobile phone using which we can virtually see the working of the phone working by performing some applications before actually buying into the device), documentation, sample code, and tutorials. We can develop these applications easily on to the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment, wherein Eclipse all sorts of languages can be written on this platform & can be debugged so as to sort out the errors). The Eclipse software is easily downloadable.
Is Android the future of mobile computing? There is certainly a strong potential for Android to shape the future of mobile computing. This means that Android is likely to be the OS of choice for future mobile computing hardware like tablet PCs. Before working on any android application it is necessary to install ADT plugin (Plugin allows you to create and debug your Android applications easier and faster. If you use Eclipse, the ADT plugin gives you an incredible boost in developing Android applications), Android SDK on the Eclipse platform.
Devices like Apple’s iPhone and the various versions of Blackberry smart phones are revolutionizing computing. The mobile computing revolution is on! Android’s greatest strength is its development kit (i.e. SDK). The application developers with their tools to develop applications killed the Apple platform and IBM’s OS2. This was the mistake made by Apple with its iPhone and the latest news about iPhone is its catching fire due to some negligence. Developing iPhone’s application is very difficult at times, due to which it is made non-profitable for many developers. The Android SDK also provides a very robust emulator so that application developers can test their Android applications without relying on physical hardware of your PC. The future of mobile computing will largely be determined by the availability of the applications to users. In this regard, Android is a clear winner on all counts. The company started with the Nokia N900 based on the Linux operating syetem, which merged with Intel’s Mobilin and is now known as MeeGo. MeeGo and Android will be two key mobile platforms of focus for Firefox.
The iPhone SDK license seems very restrictive. In the near future, Android SDK might drop iPhone because of its abusive licensing-like conditions and become a true open source platform. SKD’s greatest advantage is being licence free which helps to create applications easily.
Below there are some screenshots which will help us to get an idea about how the applications will look like after they are created on Android.
1)
This is the screenshot of the emulator.
Here the menu appears to be like this by using Android OS in a mobile device.
2)
Here I have created an android application, called HelloWorld.
This is the screenshot which shows the output of the HelloWorld application.
3)
This is the screenshot of the menu after creating the application it appears in the menu as shown.
Android could very well be the future of mobile computing. Android’s open source platform nature makes it possible for hardware developers to use it for any new devices that they can imagine. Its SDK makes it easy for application developers to create the applications.
Android seems a particularly likely candidate to usher in this future because it was engineered to be open to third party developers because Google has access to huge distribution channels being a company with a business model. The more the web grows, the more Google can advertise there. That’s very different from the phone model, including Apple’s model.
We look forward to seeing what comes next with Android on it; the future seems relatively open ended so far.