What is Android
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google. Android is primarily designed for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. But nowadays Android TV, Android Smart Watch or Android based smart TV’s are also using Android OS.
The Android operating system (OS) is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software. With open source, developers can modify and customize it for every phone. This is because we get to see different graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on different Android phones even after having the same OS.
Android was developed by Silicon Valley company in October 2003 under the name Android Inc. which was acquired by Google in 2005. Android was unveiled on November 5, 2007, and Android’s first commercial Android device was launched in September 2008. Since then, there have been major releases in the operating system and now version 12 which was released in October 2021.
Android Phones come with many built-in applications and also supports third-party applications. Developers write Android program with the help of free Android software developer kit (SDK). Android programs are written in Java language and run with the help of Java virtual machine (JVM).
Android Base Platform
Java Development Machine (JDM) platform is not used in Android despite having code written in Java. Google developed a virtual machine called Dalvik to run Java programs. After recompiling Dalvik Java code, Dalvik reads it in bytecode. It is also optimized for mobile phones and tablets to maintain battery power and functionality in environments such as limited memory and CPU power.
Java Dalvik runtime engine has been replaced by Android runtime engine in Lollipop 5.0 update. The bad Marshmallow 6.0 update replaced the Java open source runtime version with Apache Harmon. And this platform is being used in the latest Android version.
Android Versions History
There are so many versions of Android so far. The motto of each new version is to enhance the user experience with new functionality. Here are the major Android updates that have come out so far.
Version | Release Date |
Android 1.5, Cupcake | April 27, 2009 |
Android 1.6, Donut | September 15, 2009 |
Android 2.0-2.1, Eclair | October 26, 2009 (initial release) |
Android 2.2-2.2.3, Froyo | May 20, 2010 (initial release) |
Android 2.3-2.3.7, Gingerbread | December 6, 2010 (initial release) |
Android 3.0-3.2.6, Honeycomb | February 22, 2011 (initial release) |
Android 4.0-4.0.4, Ice Cream Sandwich | October 18, 2011 (initial release) |
Android 4.1-4.3.1, Jelly Bean | July 9, 2012 (initial release) |
Android 4.4-4.4.4, KitKat | October 31, 2013 (initial release) |
Android 5.0-5.1.1, Lollipop | November 12, 2014 (initial release) |
Android 6.0-6.0.1, Marshmallow | October 5, 2015 (initial release) |
Android 7.0-7.1.2, Nougat | August 22, 2016 (initial release) |
Android 8.0-8.1, Oreo | August 21, 2017 (initial release) |
Android 9.0, Pie | August 6, 2018 |
Android 10.0 | September 3, 2019 |
Android 11.0 | September 8, 2020 |
Android 12.0 | October 19, 2021 |
Android Processors
The performance of a smartphone depends on its processor. The processor is the brain of any device that controls all the functions and performance of hardware and software in the device. Most processors are used for Android devices but the processors that is commonly used in all Android devices are:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon
- Mediatek Processors
- Samsung Exynos
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