Thinking back, it's hard to believe that with so many Android phones on
the market today, that the first version of the Android OS was released only 3
years ago, but the full story starts a few years earlier.
It all began in October 2003 when Andy Rubin, Rich
Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White founded Android Inc. in Palo
Alto, California. Rubin was quoted by saying the purpose of Android was to
allow "smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location
and preferences", though at that time not much else was known about what
type of phone software it would turn out to be.
Two years later, Android Inc. was acquired by
Google in 2005 (though the amount has never been disclosed)
and became a wholly owned subsidiary, but key employees were kept during the
acquisition. In the two years that followed, the first
Android SDK Beta was released to developers and phone
manufactures. This was based on the Linux kernel to allow a flexible and
upgradeable system. During this time, Google also helped form the Open Handset
Alliance, along with a dozen other software and hardware companies, with the
purpose to develop open standards for mobile phones.Then in September
2008, the HTC Dream G1 was released by T-Mobile as the
first device to run on the Android 1.0 operating system, which
brought us the Android Market, full HTML web browser, GMail and E-Mail
connectivity, as well as Google Contacts, Calendar, Maps, Sync, Search, and
Media Player. The HTC Dream G1 featured a 3.2" display with 480x320
resolution, sliding QWERTY keyboard, 528MHz processor, 192MB of RAM, and a
3.2MP autofocus camera.
In February 2009, the HTC Dream G1 was updated to Android
1.1, which added more details in Maps, a longer screen timeout in the dialer,
and the ability to save message attachments.
By mid year, there was Android 1.5 Cupcake that added
the all important desktop Widgets, on-screen keyboard, faster camera response
with video recording, browser copy & paste, and being able to upload videos
directly to YouTube. In September 2009,Android 1.6 Donut was
released, though there was still only a handful of Android models on the market.
Not only did it bring many bug fixes, but also expanded the Voice & Text
Search capabilities to include bookmarks & history, contacts, the web, a
new Text-to-Speech, support for WVGA displays, and also CDMA/EVDO cellular
network support.
When Android 2.0
Eclair hit later in 2009, that's when things started to heat up. It
was a more advanced and refined operating system, with updates to almost every
aspect of the user interface, including multiple E-Mail accounts, Exchange
support, new Browser interface, and Bluetooth 2.1 support. Not only that, but
it is also when the original Motorola DROID came to the market from
Verizon Wireless. The device featured a 3.7" display with 480x854
resolution, EVDO Rev A for data, sliding QWERTY keyboard, 600MHz processor, 5MP
auto focus camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This is also when we started to see
many more Android devices being manufactured and sold world-wide. The next
major release was Android 2.2 Froyo in the first half of 2010.
This brought new internal optimizations to improve the overall speed, memory,
and performance of the operating system. This, along with a new V8 JavaScript
allowed the browser to work faster. We also saw an improved Application
Launcher, more Widgets, USB tethering, Voice Dialing over Bluetooth, and Adobe
Flash support in the Web Browser.Later that year, Android 2.3
Gingerbread was announced, bring an updated user interface, support
for larger and higher-resolution screens, improved power management, redesigned
on-screen keyboard, enhanced copy/paste, support for Near Field Communications
(NFC), audio effects in the music player, updated download manager, and support
for more hardware sensors (gyroscope, barometer). It was then followed by
service-updates to Android 2.3.3, 2.3.4 (voice/video chat in Google Talk), and
2.3.5 (for the Nexus S 4G).Google has also spread its wings into the Tablet
market as well. Even though there have been Tablets running Android
2.x since 2010, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the new Android
3.0 Honeycomb operating system released in early 2011 is designed
specifically for Tablets. The resigned holographic user interface still has an
"Android feel" to it, and features a System Bar for accessing
notifications, Action Bar, and Multitasking icon for bringing up a thumbnail
view of open apps. There are also new desktop Widgets that were introduced in
Honeycomb.Android 2.3.x Gingerbread is still the latest iteration
that is in currently available for Android smart phones today (mid-2011).
Though the next version has already been announced: Android Ice Cream
Sandwich, which is expected to combine elements of Gingerbread and
Honeycomb together. Due for release later this year, little is know about it,
but it will no longer require phones to have function buttons below the screen,
as they will be on the bottom of the screen as icons (similar to how it is done
in Honeycomb).As of August 2011, Canalys research claims that 51.9
million Android devices shipped just in second quarter of this year
(five times that of Q2 2010), which now accounts for 48% of all smart phones
shipped world-wide. In the U.S. alone, Nielsen Ratings research found that 39%
of smart phones were Android, followed by Apple's iOS at 28% and RIM's
BlackBerry OS at 20%.Now to make things even more interesting, Google
announced earlier this week that it is positioning itself to
purchase Motorola for $12.5 billion. It is unclear what the future will
bring from this alliance, but we're now more likely to see Nexus and DROID type
devices being produced by them down the road. Not only that, but it positions
Android to be an even more viable alternative to the Apple iPhone, RIM
BlackBerry, and Microsoft Windows Phone.
Regards,
Som
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