Android 101
Although, IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator, launched in 1992, is considered to be the world’s first smartphone, the past decade has been a boom to the smartphone industry.
But, do we all know what basically makes a phone smart?
Briefly, a smartphone is a device that lets you make telephone calls but also adds in additional features such as the ability to send and receive e-mail, edit documents, download apps, and more. Popular operating systems for smartphones are BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, and Android.
The advancements in smartphones started in 2007, with the launch of Apple’s iPhone, running on the iOS 1. Although, the device was quite expensive for that time, yet people bought it. In 2009, HTC launched a smartphone which had a new operating system, called Android. The Android powered phones costed around 1/3 of the cost of iPhones. And, as of 2019, more than 81.7%, i.e., 352 million devices run Android.
But, what is Android?
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google. It is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. (Wikipedia)
Well, being a Linux lover, for me, the best part of Android is that it is a FOSS (free and open-source software). What is an Open-Source? Well, people often confuse it with being free and not having to pay for such softwares, which is half true. Open Source Softwares are softwares which are not only available free of cost to the users but also, their source code can be edited and the software can be customized as per our will. For example, almost all the flavors of Linux, GIMP, Open-Office, Java, Android, Atom Text Editor, etc.
Moving on to a bit more technical tone, Android is an open source initiative, led by Google, under the AOSP (Android Open-Source Project). The AOSP code can be found without modification on select devices, mainly the Nexus and Pixel series of devices. Google announces major incremental upgrades to Android on a yearly basis. Since 2008, starting from the unnamed Android 1.0, Google releases updates every year, alphabetically, named after various delicacies.
A Delicious List Of Android Version Names:
- Android 1.0 (2008) — No name/Android Alpha
- Android 1.1 (2009) — Petit Four
- Android 1.5 (2009) — Cupcake
- Android 1.6 (2009) — Donut
- Android 2.0–2.1 (2009) — Eclair
- Android 2.2–2.2.3 (2010) — Froyo
- Android 2.3–2.3.7 (2010) — Gingerbread
- Android 3.0–3.2.6 (2011) — Honeycomb
- Android 4.0–4.0.4 (2011) — Ice Cream Sandwich
- Android 4.1–4.3.1 (2012) — Jellybean
- Android 4.4–4.4.4 (2013) — KitKat
- Android 5.0–5.1.1 (2014) — Lollipop
- Android 6.0–6.0.1 (2015) — Marshmallow
- Android 7.0–7.1.2 (2016) — Nougat
- Android 8.0–8.1 (2017) — Oreo
- Android 9.0 (2018) — Pie
