Android development- a revolution for the mobiles

The arrival of mobiles has changed the face of communication and networking. The world has shrunk into a small device that can bring people together from any part of the world in a jiffy. It is a marvel in the field of technology and communication. Since its arrival a few years ago, mobile telephony has seen immense changes and revolutions. Today mobile is not only a phone but is a mini world with all the information and the support that it provides. The mobile is a smart phone today and it is due to the android development that it is possible to have so many features in the mobile devices. Android is a software stack that uses Java Programming language to write the applications on the android platform. It includes an operating system, a middleware and key application. The tools are provided by the Android SDK. Some of the important applications include an email client, browser, SMS program, calendars, maps, contacts etc. It is an open source where the developers can build innovative and rich applications. Developers can use the device hardware, access location info, set alarms, run background services etc. Even the laptop manufacturing companies like Toshiba has come out with small laptops that uses android platform. Some of the important features of android software are: • The components can be replaced and reused with the application framework. • Dalvik virtual machine is optimized for mobile devices. • It has integrated browser based on WebKit which is an open source. • It has optimized graphics, SQLite for data storage, media support and hardware dependant GSM Telephony. • It also has Bluetooth, Edge, Wi-Fi, camera, GPS and accelerometer. • Another feature of android is its rich development environment which has device emulator, memory and performance profiling, debugging tools and Eclipse IDE. • Android also provides a set of libraries where all the functionality is available. Android platform is gaining popularity because of many reasons. One of the major advantages is that it works on Linux Kernel and hence is an open source. The free source makes it inexpensive and easy to develop. Android is able to bridge the gap betwee Blackberry and iPhone which are the two end of the spectrum. This platform has brought ease and enterprise together. Android is a solid platform which is cost effective to install and has excellent design approach. It is quite easy to develop android as one needs just to download android SDK and Eclipse IDE and develop it on any OS like Linux, MS Windows or Mac OS X. The applications are to be written in Java but have to be compiled in Dalvik VM which is a non Java machine. The Android development is extremely easy and multitasking is possible with it. Android platform has made it possible to use different mobile devices with high speed at very marginal cost. At times when everyone is on a move and the mobile devices are their source of livelihood and social networking, Android development is the perfect platform to provide the best services.