State of Android Operating System in June 2011

The Android platform is described and compared beneath:


Current Version:


Android 2.three.four for mobile devices and Android three.1for tablet devices.


Base Framework:


Linux based kernel with core services written in C, C++ and JAVA libraries. It runs on a lot of processor architectures - ARM, MIPS, x86, Power.


Future Visibility:


Upcoming Android OS code named Ice Cream Sandwich will be converging telephone and tablet versions of the OS with single UI across all form elements.


OS Efficiency:


Efficiency, efficiency and speed are powerful points of all Android sensible phones.


Device Management:


SDK gives device administration characteristics at technique level. Distinctive policies can be enforced like settings password good quality, max failed password attempts, password expiration, device lock, information wipe, storage encryption etc.


User Encounter:


Android is rather user friendly. Help for Multi-touch gestures and Accelerometer, Magnetometer on the market at par with iPhone, even though iPhone is a shade much better.


Optimized graphics:


Library based on OpenGL ES 1. specs.


Web Browser:


It is based on WebKit, supports HTML5, CSS3 Web fonts.


Storage:
It supports external storage. Flash memory varies from model to model. SQLLite and native data storage mechanisms are on the market for applications.


Communication:


SIP API's Enables to add SIP-based internet telephony characteristics. Also supports NFC, a short-range wireless technology.


Hardware Assistance:


Has a video Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Accelerometer, Gyroscopes, Magnetometer and Multi-touch display with varying display sizes. Some functions are device dependent.


Multi Tasking:


Complete multi-tasking applications can be written.


Media Help:


Audio - 3GP, MP3, MP4, MIDI, Wave, Ogg, FLAC(Android three.1+).


Video - H.263, H.264 AVC and MPEG4 SP, VP8 (Android two.three.three+).


Flash ten.1 is supported in v2.two and above.


Development atmosphere


Tools and Language:


Eclipse IDE, JAVA.


SDK:


Google offers Android SDK 2.three.four, three.1 and NDK for developers to write applications. For graphics and rich user interface, OpenGL ES help is readily available from the SDK and some custom libraries.


SDK offers range of emulators for developers to test, debug and run the applications through development. In build Unit testing tools.


Developer Support:


Operating Technique delivers full manage of it to the developer application via quantity of low level APIs and programming hooks. The programming work is average compared to other platforms.


Prior understanding of JAVA is ought to. Low level programming, but, demands specialized mobile improvement expertise employing NDK.


Application help


Android Market place:


Over 2,00,000 applications offered.


Then again compared to the app stores of other Mobile OS platforms, Android Market place has a considerably higher % of absolutely free apps. 25% apps are zero cost on the other app stores - apple, blackberry.


60% apps are zero cost on the Android Market.


App Distribution:


Android apps are attainable over the air through Android Market place controlled by Google. Private OTA distribution is attainable.


Enterprise Help:


Android has restricted device management capabilities. It also supports VPN connections.


Consumer Assistance:


Considerable quantity of applications - two,00000 - are attainable for users to download absolutely free or at nominal charge. Wide range of device solutions is attainable.


Devices attainable


Existing:


Droid 2, Xperia, Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy etc. About 150+ devices worldwide.


Future: Several device choices are to be obtainable from quantity of producers. This is 1 of Android's greatest accelerators and a thing Apple will find hard to compete against.


Pros and Cons


Android is an open Mobile OS platform, with lot of emerging features that are needed in today's intelligent telephone. It also enables numerous touch tone capabilities liked by folks on iPhone.


Employed for much more than 150 devices by many different manufacturers.


It is absolutely a Multi-threaded, multi-processing OS. Developers can build lot of capabilities, which is not attainable on the Apple iPhone platform.


The OS contains a lot of emulator UI skins that enables a developer to create the application for one particular set of screen sizes and intensity, but easily make it available on other screen sizes, sharpness without any improvement. This is enormous for each producers and developers.


A large number of OEM's are creating net-books / tablets / other mobile devices based on the Google Android platform. Not confident how this ties with the Google Chrome OS.


Android Industry is the second most well known application shop with additional than 2,00,000 applications available for download. 60% of these are absolutely free. On other app stores - Apple, Blackberry, about 25% are absolutely free.


The Android 3.1 OS is a state of the art mobile OS with attributes available on typical desktop OS and greater overall performance. Even more particulars available on .


Enterprise Security and other device administration functions will make organizations to include things like Google Android in the enterprise. This adoption of Android by enterprises will raise in near future.


The greatest disadvantage of the Android OS is how they will continue to support the numerous OS / devices going into the future. Also the vision for Android vs. that of Google Chrome in other devices other than mobile phones is not clear.

0 comments:

Post a Comment