v Introduction
What is Android?
Android is
a software platform and operating system for mobile devices, based on the Linux
kernel, developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows
developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device
via Google-developed Java libraries. Applications written in C and other
languages can be compiled to ARM native code and run, but this development path
is not officially supported by Google.
The
unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the
founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 48 hardware, software,
and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices.
Google released most of the Android code under the Apache license, a
free-software and open source license.
What
is The Open Handset Alliance?
Open
Handset Alliance, is a consortium of several companies which include Google,
HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and NVIDIA, ... These
companies which aim to develop technologies that will significantly lower the
cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android
platform is the first step in this direction -- a fully integrated mobile
"software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware,
user-friendly interface and applications.
License
Android is
under version 2 of the Apache Software License (ASL). The Apache license allows
manufacturers and mobile operators to innovate using the platform without the
requirement to contribute those innovations back to the open source community.
