Android is a Linux-based operating system developed for mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets. Google And with the advancement and development of Android technology developed by the Open Handset Alliance and first published in 2008, it has now been used in wristwatches, televisions, glasses and even automobiles. As the number of mobile devices and users in the world increases, Android has become the most popular operating system in the world. In 2021, Sameer Samat, who is vice president of Product Management at Google, announced that the number of active smart devices using the Android operating system worldwide exceeded 3 billion.
Android is an improved open source operating system based on Linux and is free to use. By offering Android to users free and open source, Google aims to improve the operating system faster and technology companies to take advantage of the price and use the Android operating system on more devices. This move by Google has delivered the desired result and a huge community of software developers has 190 users from 190 different countries to improve the functions and capabilities of the devices using the advantage of being open source. Apps for mobile devices using the Android operating system are published in the app marketplace called the Google Play Store. The supported application extension on the Android operating system is “.apk”. In the second quarter of 2020, Android users will have access to more than 2.7 million apps through the Google Play Store, the latest disclosures show. These applications reached 28.3 billion downloads in the same period.
There are 5 basic sections that make up the Linux-based Android operating system. These sections are;
Kernel: It is based on Linux. That’s why the Android kernel is also a Linux kernel. The core includes security, process and memory management, network stacks and driver models.
Android RunTime : It is a virtual machine for the Android operating system.
Library: The web browser is the bar section of database, graphics and interface libraries.
Application Roof : It is the section with a wide platform for application developers.
Application Layer : Java is the section that contains applications developed with the program.
When we examine the history of the Android operating system, it is possible to find some interesting information. One of them is that the first purpose of development of android is digital cameras instead of phones. Andy Rubin, one of the founders of Android, explains during a forum in Tokyo that they actually developed the operating system they use on mobile phones for cameras, but the cameras do not have a large enough market and they have entered the mobile device market in keeping with the developing technology.
Version | Code Name | Release Date |
---|---|---|
1.0 | Android 1.0 | September 23rd, 2008 |
1.1 | Android 1.1 | February 9th, 2009 |
2.3 | Gingerbread | February 9th, 2011 |
2.3.6 | Gingerbread | September 2rd, 2011 |
3.0 | Honeycomb | February 22th, 2011 |
4.0 | Ice Cream Sandwich | October 19th, 2011 |
4.1 | Jelly Bean | July 9th, 2012 |
4.2 | Jelly Bean | November 13th, 2012 |
4.3 | Jelly Bean | July 24th, 2013 |
4.4 | Kitkat | October 31st, 2013 |
4.4.4 | Kitkat | June 19th, 2014 |
5.0 | Lollipop | November 3rd, 2014 |
5.1 | Lollipop | March 9th, 2015 |
6.0 | Marshmallows | October 5th, 2015 |
7.0 | Nougat | August 22nd, 2016 |
7.1 | Nougat | October 4th, 2016 |
7.1.1 | Nougat | December 5th, 2016 |
8.0 | Oreo | August 21st, 2017 |
8.1 | Oreo | December 5th, 2017 |
9 | Pie | August 6th, 2018 |
10 | 10 | September 3rd, 2019 |
11 | 11 | September 8rd, 2020 |
With today’s technology, the number of mobile devices is increasing day by day. In this sense, many software developers are developing applications for devices with Android operating systems to meet the needs of users and make their lives easier. The most used software by software developers is the Android Studio program. In addition, it is possible to develop Android applications with various software such as Xamarin, Cordova, Titanium, Eclipse and IntelliJ.
Developer options available within the Android operating system are turned off in the default settings. By entering the phone’s settings menu, you must press the version number in the about phone field in the system option settings one after the other until the “You Are Now a Developer” notification appears. After this notification, developer settings for mobile app developers will be included in the settings menu.
Developer(s)
Google, Open Handset Alliance
Operating system family
Unix-like
Package manager
Google Play and APK
Resource type
Open source, some components off
Kernel type
Monolithic core
First release date
September 23rd, 2008
Latest stable version
Android 12 / 4 October 2021 (5 months ago)
User interface
Graphical user interface
Programming languages
Java, Python, C++, C, Go, XML, Assembly
Update method
Aerial Programming