Android: History and evolution of the most famous Smartphone Operating System in the world

Android was founded in 2003 by Andy Rubinwhich initially developed operating systems for digital cameras before realizing that the mobile phone market would probably be more interesting.

Two years later, In 2005, Google acquired Android, Inc.. and it targeted precisely this market with a strategic plan to sell the system to phone makers and attract the attention of HTC, which released its first Android phone, the HTC Dream, in 2008. This was the beginning of Android development. , a story that continues to this day.

The evolution of Android versions It begins with version 1.0 of Apple Pie, which was responsible for presenting the platform. The HTC Dream smartphone was introduced as the first commercial device with this operating system, which was developed by Android.Inc based on the linux kernel.

What is Android? Definition

It is one of the currently popular mobile device operating systems. Initially, it was developed for mobile phones, but it has already been extended to other devices with a large number of sales, such as tablets, televisions or smart watches. The company Android Inc. has always been supported by Google at an economic level, so it is based on a very important base that inevitably means that it is better valued on the network, because let’s not forget that, after all, it is the giant search engine that splits the cod.

What is the Android operating system? Origin and history

In October 2003four friends from the town of Palo Alto created Android Inc. to be able to carry out a project of Linux based development that would surprise the fans of the world of the technology of the moment. In 2005, Google saw the opportunity and took over the company. to continue with the development of your project; a maneuver that, without a doubt, was one of the best decisions that were made. Throughout this post, we will see its chronological progress and all the tools that the OS has today.

November 5, 2007the initial version of the product, called Android 1.0 Apple Pie, was announced, although it was not until 2008, when the first mobile phone with said device appeared on the market. operating system integrated; that is, to date there was no product, although there was a company. From that moment on, the sale of these terminals skyrocketed immediately to reach the top positions with a market share in 2011 of more than 50%, surpassing by double the mobiles of the Apple brand, which have iOS OS.

The main advantage of mobile operating system What concerns us, above its direct competitor, is that being based on Linux, any developer can publish their application, since a work environment what is commonly known as “free or open source”. The official store where these apps is Google Playalthough other unofficial stores have already appeared where you can also download the same ones but for which, obviously, Google is not responsible.

The applications of this operating system are carried out in Javaalthough they are also developed in a new environment known as Android Runtime (ART) using a SDK or Software Development Kit for Android. The system is made up of about 12 million lines of code in total, distributed in Java, XML, C and C++.

The well-known company logo also contains a curious little story. It is a robot named Andy. The android alludes to characters from the film bladerunnerwhere a story based on a group of Nexus 6 model replicating androids.

As another curious fact, it can also be said that all the Android OS versions that have been known in the market bear the name of a well-known sweet: Oreo, nougat, marshmallow…

One of the biggest criticisms that this operating system can receive is that it is too fragmented and, therefore, their devices are not constantly updated by each manufacturer. Generally, they tend to do it quickly to correct errors; in fact, the developers made a promise to generate updates every 18 months, although this, although it is fulfilled, It is of little use if the device manufacturers do not update the corresponding firmware..

Next, we present a summary of the history that the company has gone through since it was founded until today.

• 2003founding of the Android Inc. company by four Palo Alto technicians who would later become part of the Google company: Rick Miner, Andy Rubin, Nick Sears and Chris White.
• 2005, Google buys Android Inc. for 50 million dollars, surprising the world of technology companies, considering that it was a good option and a great idea for the future; they were not wrong.
• 2007the first official version of the operating system appears, called Android 1.0 Apple Pie.
• 2007In that same year, 23 leading companies in the hardware world (ZTE, Garmin, Toshiba, Vodafone…) signed a fundamental alliance to create a collaboration of open standards.
• 2008, the first terminals that use this operating system appear. The one that inaugurates the premiere of the system in the market is the HTC Dream. As data, add that in six months nearly a million units of this phone were sold in the US alone.
• 2009, during that year several new versions of the very competitive operating system appear. These were:
  • February 2009Android 1.1 Banana Bread.
  • April 2009Android 1.5 CupCake.
  • September 2009Android 1.6 Donut.
  • October 2009Android 2.0 Eclair.
• 2010, in May appears one of the best known versions of this system, Android 2.2 Froyo. It is a very good evolution at the level of user experience and that integrates important new options for compatibility with other devices. At the end of the year, version 2.3 Gingerbread also appears with some improvements at the level of the user interface and hardware tools.
• 2012, appears one of the versions of the pillar of the great improvements of the brand, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The system is recognized in the market at all levels, reaching users with a tighter budget to buy terminals.
• 2014the Dalvik virtual machine, used until now, is replaced, in version 4.4, by ART, an environment in which the Java bytecode is compiled.
• Onwards… Each new version of the OS is an event with great fanfare, so highlighting the release of each of them on the corresponding date loses a bit of meaning.

Main features of Android OS

Android is a very different operating system from the other great king of the market, iOS. But, in this case, it is so oriented to the good use that the user can make that has characteristics that they make it position itself in the first position of the market ranking. Here are the most important ones:

• Open Source: Different programmers can get the system code and make modifications or new additions. Perhaps this is the main feature, since you can customize a greater number of aspects and perform the installations that most interest you. This does that certain manufacturers opt for this OS for their terminals, introducing the customization layers they consider.
• Linux kernel: Acts as an abstraction layer that separates the software of hardware with what Linux uses to manage processes, RAMnetwork and controllers.
• Adaptable: It is a system that adjusts itself to different resolutions and touch screens.
• SQLite: This database is used, and access to it is faster and easier.
• Very reliable file system which has a minimal risk of information loss, called Ext4.
• It is a multitasking system for the actual treatment of applications. You may be able to listen to music while browsing Internet or read an e-book.
• GooglePlay: It is a store that has a large catalog of free and paid applications that users can download and install at any time.
• Comes with good tools for memory purging and perform performance analysis of the applications you have installed.
• Supports many media formats: HTML, HTML5, Java, Adobe Flash Player,…
• Android Runtime: A large part of the functions that the system has is based on the set of base libraries that it brings. In this way, each of the Android applications runs its own process at the instance of the virtual machine.
• There are many communities that generate content about the OS of the android, so each movement that you intend to make or that may interest you will be well documented on multiple web pages.
• Terminals with this operating system are easily rootable: Hence, many privileges can be obtained, such as installing themes, ROMs or even other versions without too much difficulty.

How and where can we download applications for Android?

Every day new applications appear on the market to be downloaded; They literally number in the thousands. As you probably don’t know all the options you have, in this section we are going to explain how and where you can download this software, including games, for this operating system. To download and update phone software follow these steps:

Download Android Apps via PC

This movement is very simple since the steps to follow are always the same:

1. On the computer, through the Internet, you can access the web pages where the applications that each user is looking for are found.
2. You must download the installation file of the desired software and save it on a pendrive. These files must have the .apk extension.
3. Next, we must create the applications folder and place all the previously downloaded files there.
4. Next, we will download some kind of file manager application.
5. From it, we access all the files that we have transferred from the PC to the smartphone and we will touch on those that we want to install.

In order to carry out this option, It is necessary to remember that you must have the option that allows you to install third-party software activated. and which is found in the settings of our device.

From the Google Play Store

Official store where the applications and games we are looking for are found. It has a search engine where we put the keywords we have to find the application we need. Once located, we only have to download it and let it be installed in the terminala process that is carried out automatically. This app store comes pre-installed on every version of the operating system and on all devices that mount it.