In 2007, rumors spread that Google would enter the smartphone market, but by early 2008, it was revealed that Google was focusing on a mobile operating system named Android rather than hardware. The Android OS is open-source, allowing developers to modify its source code, which supports a variety of hardware configurations. The HTC G1 was the first phone to run on Android, and Google has reported significant sales figures, indicating that Android could become a dominant force in the smartphone industry.

1. Vishal Joshipura
Vishal_joshipura@yahoo.com
Google Phones: Not the Handset but mobile
Operating System Called Android
Is Google jumps to the mobiles and hardware market??????
In 2007, people began to circulate rumours that the Google
Corporation would introduce a smartphone to compete with Apple's
iPhone. Speculation ran rampant -- would Google get into the hardware
business? Would the company rely on established cell phone
manufacturers for hardware? Would Google simply concentrate on
building smartphone applications for other devices like the iPhone?
Google executives claimed that the company wasn't interested in
building hardware. But some Web journalists and bloggers remained
unconvinced. By early 2008, it became clear that the Google executives had
been straightforward all along -- Google was not getting into the handset
hardware game. But they were getting into the handset software business
with a mobile operating system (OS) called Android.
The first Google phone was the G1, a handset manufactured by a
company based in Taiwan called the High Tech Computer Corporation
(HTC). The first service provider to support Android in the United States
was T-Mobile.
An important factor that sets Android apart from most other mobile
OS is that it's based on an open source platform, Google allows anyone to
look at and modify most of Android's source code. Ideally, this would mean

2. that if a developer felt Android needed a specific feature or capability, he or
she could build it and incorporate it into the OS. The software would
constantly evolve.
As hardware becomes more advanced, Google will tweak the Android
OS to support new features and functions. And if Google doesn't do it,
someone else will. That's the beauty of an open-source system.
You can divide the features of the HTC G1 (the first phone to run on the
Android platform) into two categories: hardware features and Android
features. Remember, not every phone running on Android will have the
same capabilities as other Android phones. Some of those features are built
directly into the hardware and can vary from one manufacturer to the next.
CEO of google has says: there are 2,00,000 piece of Android phones are
sold per day in no of month from its launch
Google Android Architecture:
Android OS as a software stack.
Each layer of the stack groups together several programs that
support specific operating system functions. The base of the stack is the
kernel. Google used the Linux version 2.6 OS to build Android's kernel,
which includes Android's memory management programs, security
settings, power management software and several hardware drivers.
Drivers are programs that control hardware devices. For example, the HTC
G1 has a camera. The Android kernel includes a camera driver, which
allows the user to send commands to the camera hardware.
The next level of software includes Android's libraries. You can
think of libraries as a set of instructions that tell the device how to handle
different kinds of data.
Located on the same level as the libraries layer, the Android
runtime layer includes a set of core Java libraries -- Android application
programmers build their apps using the Java programming language. It also
includes the Dalvik Virtual Machine.

3. The next layer is the application framework. This includes the
programs that manage the phone's basic functions like resource allocation,
telephone applications, switching between processes or programs and
keeping track of the phone's physical location. Application developers have
full access to Android's application framework
At the top of the stack are the applications themselves. This is
where you find the basic functions of the device such as making phone
calls, accessing the Web browser and accessing your contacts list.
Building Android Applications
To build an Android application, a developer has to be familiar
with the Java programming language. The Developer can download the
software developer kit (SDK) and get started. The SDK gives the developer
access to Android's application programming interface (API).
• Google breaks each Application into 4 parts as Activities, Intents,
Services, Content provider.
The Android phone is already making an impact in the world of
smartphones. But it may take a year or two for the operating system to gain
a strong foothold in the marketplace. If that happens, Google might
dominate the cell phone world the same way it has laid claim to online
search.