At present there is fierce competition in the phone market place betweenthe major phone manufacturers with each one offering their own range ofsmart phones. The differentiating feature between a smartphone and anormal phone being the ability of the phone to perform a wide variety ofextra tasks besides making a phone call.
The ability to install games on a phone is nothing new but the latestgeneration of phones have taken that to the next level with theintroduction of various sensors and devices that allow the phone to domuch more. Through creation of these mobile platforms a new industry ofmobile device application developers has been born generating a myriadapplications for every conceivable task.In this thriving newmarket there are many manufacturers but the majority of them are usingone Operating System which is Android. The Android Operating System israther like Windows running on most desktop and laptop computers today.At present in a recent report by the National Purchase Diary (NPD)Android is the 2nd most popular operating system of choice for the firstquarter of 2010 with Blackberry and iOS being ranked first and thirdrespectively.
The most distinctive feature of the Android platformis the fact that it was open-sourced by Google meaning anyone candevelop it. If the changes that they make are advantageous to theroadmap of the platform then they will be adopted. This means that theAndroid platform has a large community of developers ranging fromenthusiasts to developers in large corporation's all working towards acommon goal - the success of the platform.
The Android OperatingSystem is based on a Linux which is a Unix based operating system thathas been around for a very long time. Linux is commonly found in theserver rooms of large industries where a robust operating system isrequire as downtime would be unacceptable. Sitting on-top of the Linuxoperating system is a thin layer that consists of drivers for thehardware and services such as a database etc. Running on top of all thisis a Vitual Machine in which all the applications run. A virtualmachine is not a new idea and can be thought of as a 'standard computer'that always behaves the same was regardless of the hardware. This givesthe Android application developers the ability to write a wide varietyof application on a vast range of Android based phones.
The nativeAndroid operating system and therefore most phones using the Androidoperating system offer the following features.
Handset layouts
Theplatform is adaptable to larger, VGA, 2D graphics library, 3D graphicslibrary based on OpenGL ES 2.0 specifications, and traditionalsmartphone layouts.
Storage
SQLite, a lightweightrelational database, is used for data storage purposes
Connectivity
Androidsupports connectivity technologies including GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA,EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX.
Messaging
SMSand MMS are available forms of messaging, including threaded textmessaging and now Android Cloud to Device Messaging Framework(C2DM) isalso a part of Android Push Messaging service.
Web browser
Theweb browser available in Android is based on the open-source WebKitlayout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. The browserscores a 93/100 on the Acid3 Test.
Java support
WhileAndroid applications are written in Java, there's no Java VirtualMachine in the platform and Java byte code is not executed. Java classesget recompiled into Dalvik executable and run on Dalvik virtualmachine. Dalvik is a specialized virtual machine designed specificallyfor Android and optimized for battery-powered mobile devices withlimited memory and CPU. Android does not support J2ME, like some othermobile operating systems.
Media support
Androidsupports the following audio/video/still media formats: H.263, H.264 (in3GP or MP4 container), MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC,HE-AAC (in MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, JPEG, PNG,GIF, BMP.
Additional hardware support
Android canuse video/still cameras, touchscreens, GPS, accelerometers,magnetometers, accelerated 2D bit blits (with hardware orientation,scaling, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D graphics.
Developmentenvironment
Includes a device emulator, tools for debugging,memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE.
Market
Likemany phone-based application stores, the Android Market is a catalog ofapplications that can be downloaded and installed to target hardwareover-the-air, without the use of a PC. Originally only free applicationswere supported. Paid-for applications have been available on theAndroid Market in the United States since 19 February 2009. The AndroidMarket has been expanding rapidly. As of April 30, 2010, it had over50,000 Android applications for download.
Multi-touch
Androidhas native support for multi-touch which was initially made availablein handsets such as the HTC Hero. The feature was originally disabled atthe kernel level (possibly to avoid infringing Apple's patents ontouch-screen technology). Google has since released an update for theNexus One and the Motorola Droid which enables multi-touch natively.
Bluetooth
Supportfor A2DP and AVRCP were added in version 1.5;sending files (OPP) andaccessing the phone book (PBAP) were added in version 2.0; and voicedialing and sending contacts between phones were added in version 2.2.
Videocalling
Notsupported by default but as seen with the HTC Evo 4G, handsetmanufacturers can build front-facing cameras into their phones, so Qik
Multitasking
Multitaskingof applications is available.
All of these features make theAndroid platform perfect for Automotive applications where a smallembedded computer solution is required to perform useful functionalitysuch as satellite navigation (using Google maps).
Some carmanufacturers have started to investigate the addition of an Androidbased solution in their vehicles and early in 2010 the first carleveraging Android was launched. The car is called the Roewe 350 whichis manufactured by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. You canuse the computer for directions and traffic reports just as you canwith many other GPS devices. But it's not all vanilla; you can also surfthe web and engage in some form of Internet chatting.
There hasalso been rumours of General Motors in talks with Google about creating asimilar device for their range of cars. The system would control avariety of features in the car but may also be controlled via anotherAndroid based device.
I think that we will be seeing more of theAndroid platform in the Motor Industry and it is easy to imagine anin-car computer where downloading applications or setting your carwallpaper is an everday occurance.
