Android® Fully Loaded, Second Edition

Introduction

Consider this, four short years ago, very few people had ever heard the term “smartphone.” While the term is in fact quite a bit older — according to Wikipedia, it was first applied to the Ericsson GS88 in 1997 — it was not until Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone in 2007 that the term entered common usage. The smartphone almost perfectly fits the definition of a disruptive technology; that is, one of those technologies that comes along every so often that radically changes our world. One simple example: Smartphones have created a massive shift in how we interact online. Today, most people visiting the top sites on the web still use desktop and laptop computers, but that trend is quickly changing. In fact, estimates are that by 2015, smartphones will surpass traditional computers to become the primary means by which we get online.

The smartphone market itself is changing so fast it is hard to keep up. At times it seems like new devices are released almost every day. Desktop PC users are used to hearing about new versions of Windows or the Macintosh operating system every three or four years, while their devices seem to get new versions at a breakneck speed.

Apple led the next revolution in mobile devices in 2010 with the announcement of the iPad. Just as smartphones existed before the iPhone, tablets existed before the iPad, but it was the device that brought the idea of tablets into the mainstream.

On both the phone and the tablet market, Google's Android was the ...