Android, the revolutionary mobile computing platform from Google has completely changed the rules of the game. An intuitive framework based on Linux kernel has been in the limelight ever since Google made the SDK and sources publicly available. The well thought out architecture and simplified API interfaces are some of the key attractions for the developer community. For the OEMs and ODMs, the reusability of the software components and the less prohibitive license model ensure quick product releases without compromising on their patented algorithms and technologies.
However, the pace at which Google rolls out the newer versions of Android poses some major challenges to companies offering product development services in Android space. The developer community is trying hard to catch up with the framework enhancements and feature additions with short and steep learning curve. The end user, who has become so much more excited about the newer gadgets based on Android, albeit finds it really hard to pick the right one that suits his/her requirements. With the release of Gingerbread and the announcement of Honeycomb, the stakeholders are more confused.
The one and only option for us to be in the race is to "Be Adaptive in Android World".
Android as a platform has been constantly evolving. The framework has undergone drastic modifications and optimizations based on the internal evaluation by Google and feedback from the developer and user community across the globe. Every new upgrade of the source code and the SDK release brings out a gamut of cool new features unheard by the mobile computing world.
The frequent SDK releases demand the developer to master the framework changes and feature upgrades in short span of time. This has shortened the traditional development-debug-test-deployment cycle manifold. The end user experience is redefined in every version of Android. Some of the applications and games published in Android Market testify the unlimited power of innovative thinking driven by the feature packed Android SDK. The phones and tablets running the latest version of the framework supports Text-2-Speech, Voice-Recognition and Voice-Search, OpenGL 3D based gaming, Audio synthesis and Multimedia, Gesture-Recognition and Gesture-Builder, Live Wallpapers and Widgets, Tethering and Hot-Spots, Support for IP telephony with SIP signaling, RFID communication, wide range of sensors like Gyroscope, Rotation-Vector, Linear-Acceleration, Gravity, Barometer etc. Applications demonstrating these features have great potential to become popular among the user community.
Google emphasizes a lot on efficient power management in Android devices. The framework leaves the decisions on power management policies to application developer unlike other conventional mobile platforms. Android applications use wake-lock APIs to set the power management policies at a higher level. This freedom and flexibility may get misused by insensitive applications that drain the battery too fast. The framework designers have realized the gravity of this issue and implemented more intuitive battery monitor that reports the per process battery usage. Now you or me as end user has the ability to terminate such hostile applications with the help of this battery monitor.
The Froyo version of the framework has added JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler to the Dalvik virtual machine. For less graphics intensive application, JIT certainly improves load-time and execution. However, applications and games having complex screen rendering and user interaction still suffers from frequent garbage collections (GC) hindering smooth screen animations and event management. To resolve this, the Dalvik VM has been updated to support concurrent GC. The announcement of this feature in Gingerbread has created a lot of excitement among the game developers who can no longer wait to deploy their cool 3D games on the Android game stations.
Android is rapidly transforming from a smart phone operating system to generic mobile computing platform. The latest version code-named Honeycomb, is targeted more at the Tablet market with bigger and denser screens where the screen real estate is efficiently utilized. The demonstration of Honeycomb running on dual core Tegra-2 reference hardware at CES 2011 has captivated the attention of the whole computing world especially for the awesome HMI entirely driven through the touch screen with no physical buttons, 360 degree orientation, Google Maps 5 with 3D interaction and internet browser with tab support.
The core of the platform has undergone tremendous optimizations and modifications in every version upgrades. Android versions prior to Gingerbread have Packet Video’s Opencore as multimedia engine. In Android Froyo, Google introduced a new media framework called Stagefright that can co-exist with Opencore. Gingerbread has completely phased out Opencore in favor of Stagefright for its simplified design. Another significant step is the introduction of a new native file system to optimize the data access. Android has been using YAFFS2 as the native file system and user-data stored on NAND Flash in the earlier versions. Some of the Android devices are having the system images mounted off the SD/MMC storage with EXT3 file system. Since the I/O performance numbers generated for EXT2/EXT3 as well as YAFFS2 file systems are not really encouraging, Google has decided to opt for more optimized EXT4 as the native FS in Gingerbread version.
The unlimited feature sets and unified API layer in Android is one of the prime reasons for it to become popular and favorite among the manufactures of Smart Phones, Tablets/MID, Health Monitoring Devices, Location Based systems, Games stations, DLNA/UPnP compliant Digital Media Adapters etc. Android powered Google TV is creating a lot of excitement among the developers and end users. The same application can now run on the mobile phone, Tablet and Google TV and what more can an end user ask for.
Some of the latest applications published in Android Market have got usage analytics embedded in them. The developer is always in sync with the usage model of the application with help of the data flowing from individual Android devices to the Google Analytics server. This ensures that the developer is well aware of the features liked or disliked in his application and be able to offer a better feature upgrade.
One of the thought processes behind Android was to have a framework for the end user to develop and deploy applications on their personal devices. Is this a viable goal given the fact that Java programming is not so easy to master? Lack of Java skills is no longer a bottleneck in converting your ideas into best selling applications. You can drag-n-drop UI widgets and define their behavior using “App Inventor”, wonderful tool developed at Google Labs for laymen developing application for next gen Android gadgets.
However, the pace at which Google rolls out the newer versions of Android poses some major challenges to companies offering product development services in Android space. The developer community is trying hard to catch up with the framework enhancements and feature additions with short and steep learning curve. The end user, who has become so much more excited about the newer gadgets based on Android, albeit finds it really hard to pick the right one that suits his/her requirements. With the release of Gingerbread and the announcement of Honeycomb, the stakeholders are more confused.
The one and only option for us to be in the race is to "Be Adaptive in Android World".
Android as a platform has been constantly evolving. The framework has undergone drastic modifications and optimizations based on the internal evaluation by Google and feedback from the developer and user community across the globe. Every new upgrade of the source code and the SDK release brings out a gamut of cool new features unheard by the mobile computing world.
The frequent SDK releases demand the developer to master the framework changes and feature upgrades in short span of time. This has shortened the traditional development-debug-test-deployment cycle manifold. The end user experience is redefined in every version of Android. Some of the applications and games published in Android Market testify the unlimited power of innovative thinking driven by the feature packed Android SDK. The phones and tablets running the latest version of the framework supports Text-2-Speech, Voice-Recognition and Voice-Search, OpenGL 3D based gaming, Audio synthesis and Multimedia, Gesture-Recognition and Gesture-Builder, Live Wallpapers and Widgets, Tethering and Hot-Spots, Support for IP telephony with SIP signaling, RFID communication, wide range of sensors like Gyroscope, Rotation-Vector, Linear-Acceleration, Gravity, Barometer etc. Applications demonstrating these features have great potential to become popular among the user community.
Google emphasizes a lot on efficient power management in Android devices. The framework leaves the decisions on power management policies to application developer unlike other conventional mobile platforms. Android applications use wake-lock APIs to set the power management policies at a higher level. This freedom and flexibility may get misused by insensitive applications that drain the battery too fast. The framework designers have realized the gravity of this issue and implemented more intuitive battery monitor that reports the per process battery usage. Now you or me as end user has the ability to terminate such hostile applications with the help of this battery monitor.
The Froyo version of the framework has added JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler to the Dalvik virtual machine. For less graphics intensive application, JIT certainly improves load-time and execution. However, applications and games having complex screen rendering and user interaction still suffers from frequent garbage collections (GC) hindering smooth screen animations and event management. To resolve this, the Dalvik VM has been updated to support concurrent GC. The announcement of this feature in Gingerbread has created a lot of excitement among the game developers who can no longer wait to deploy their cool 3D games on the Android game stations.
Android is rapidly transforming from a smart phone operating system to generic mobile computing platform. The latest version code-named Honeycomb, is targeted more at the Tablet market with bigger and denser screens where the screen real estate is efficiently utilized. The demonstration of Honeycomb running on dual core Tegra-2 reference hardware at CES 2011 has captivated the attention of the whole computing world especially for the awesome HMI entirely driven through the touch screen with no physical buttons, 360 degree orientation, Google Maps 5 with 3D interaction and internet browser with tab support.
The core of the platform has undergone tremendous optimizations and modifications in every version upgrades. Android versions prior to Gingerbread have Packet Video’s Opencore as multimedia engine. In Android Froyo, Google introduced a new media framework called Stagefright that can co-exist with Opencore. Gingerbread has completely phased out Opencore in favor of Stagefright for its simplified design. Another significant step is the introduction of a new native file system to optimize the data access. Android has been using YAFFS2 as the native file system and user-data stored on NAND Flash in the earlier versions. Some of the Android devices are having the system images mounted off the SD/MMC storage with EXT3 file system. Since the I/O performance numbers generated for EXT2/EXT3 as well as YAFFS2 file systems are not really encouraging, Google has decided to opt for more optimized EXT4 as the native FS in Gingerbread version.
The unlimited feature sets and unified API layer in Android is one of the prime reasons for it to become popular and favorite among the manufactures of Smart Phones, Tablets/MID, Health Monitoring Devices, Location Based systems, Games stations, DLNA/UPnP compliant Digital Media Adapters etc. Android powered Google TV is creating a lot of excitement among the developers and end users. The same application can now run on the mobile phone, Tablet and Google TV and what more can an end user ask for.
Some of the latest applications published in Android Market have got usage analytics embedded in them. The developer is always in sync with the usage model of the application with help of the data flowing from individual Android devices to the Google Analytics server. This ensures that the developer is well aware of the features liked or disliked in his application and be able to offer a better feature upgrade.
One of the thought processes behind Android was to have a framework for the end user to develop and deploy applications on their personal devices. Is this a viable goal given the fact that Java programming is not so easy to master? Lack of Java skills is no longer a bottleneck in converting your ideas into best selling applications. You can drag-n-drop UI widgets and define their behavior using “App Inventor”, wonderful tool developed at Google Labs for laymen developing application for next gen Android gadgets.