Android

Android is a Linux kernel based operating system that is used on smart phones and tablets  The user interface has the basic touch screen action such as pinching, swiping, tapping, reverse pinching.  Initially the operating system was developed by Android, inc., which was backed by Google who eventually bought the company in 2005 [1].

Like all modern operating system, the Android operating system has a layered architecture where the Application is the top layer of the stack and the Linux kernel is the lowest layer.  All Android devices ship with a set of core application, email client, SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and other features.  All of the application is written in Java.  The architecture is designed to simplify and re-use the application components.  For example, say that you created a small note taking application and you have an address written down in the note application, you can have your application directly access the map application instead of having the user switch to the map application.  The Android operating system has C/C++ libraries that can be accessed through the application framework. [2] 



Figure 1.  Android component stack

As you can see from the Android component stack in Figure 1.  The lowest layer is the Linux kernel.  The Library Layer contain the different C/C++ libraries while the very top layer is the Application layer.

As of 2011 Android has the largest install base for mobile devices.  There were more android devices sold in 2013 than Windows, iOS and Mac OS devices combined.  Also as of July 2013 there were 1 million android apps published and 50 billion apps downloaded.  Currently Google is working on putting the android operating system on other devices such smart watches and Google glasses. [2]

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29

 

[2]Developers, Android. "What is android." http://developer. android. com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html 2 (2011).