Android Tutorial - Android Introduction








Android is a mobile operating system that is based on a modified version of Linux.

Most of the Android code was released under the open source Apache License.

Features of Android

There are no fixed hardware or software configurations. However, Android itself supports the following features:

  • Storage - Uses SQLite, a lightweight relational database, for data storage.
  • Connectivity - Supports GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, and WiMAX.
  • Messaging - Supports both SMS and MMS.
  • Web browser - Based on the open source WebKit, together with Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine
  • Media support - Includes support for the following media: H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB, AAC, HE-AAC, MP3, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP
  • Hardware support - Accelerometer Sensor, Camera, Digital Compass, Proximity Sensor, and GPS
  • Multi-touch - Supports multi-touch screens
  • Multi-touch - Supports multi-touch screens
  • Multi-tasking - Supports multi-tasking applications
  • Tethering - Supports sharing of Internet connections as a wired/wireless hotspot




Architecture of Android

The Android OS is roughly divided into five sections in four main layers:

  • Linux kernel - This is the kernel on which Android is based.
  • Libraries - These contain all the code that provides the main features of an Android OS.
  • Android runtime - At the same layer as the libraries, the Android runtime provides a set of core libraries that enable developers to write Android apps using the Java programming language.
  • Application framework - Exposes the various capabilities of the Android OS to application developers so that they can make use of them in their applications.
  • Applications - Applications that ship with the Android device, as well as applications that you download and install from the Android Market. Any applications that you write are located at this layer.