Java Programming for Android Developers For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1

All about Java and Android

IN THIS CHAPTER

The consumer's view of the Android ecosystem

The ten-cent tour of Java and Android technologies

Until the mid-2000s, the word android represented a mechanical, humanlike creature — a rootin’-tootin’ officer of the law with built-in machine guns or a hyperlogical space traveler who can do everything except speak using contractions. And then in 2005, Google purchased Android, Inc. — a 22-month-old company creating software for mobile phones. That move changed everything.

In 2007, a group of 34 companies formed the Open Handset Alliance. Its task is “to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience”; its primary project is Android, an open, free operating system based on the Linux operating system kernel.

Though HTC released the first commercially available Android phone near the end of 2008, in the United States the public's awareness of Android and its potential didn't surface until early 2010.

Since then, Android's ecosystem has enjoyed steady growth. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reports (at www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/article): “The latest smartphone OS data … for the three months ending March 2016 shows Android continuing to grow sales ...