1 INTRODUCTION

Android is a mobile operating system that uses a modified version of the Linux
kernel2.6 Google released most of the Android code under Apache License, a free
software & open source license.

All the flimflams and excitement about the costlier iphones and Blackberrys are
vanishing, after the arrival of the most anticipated, open source mobile operating
system, the Google Android, which is fated to turn the industry upside down. Despite
the growth and popularity for iPhones and Blackberrys, it is predicted that, Android
will make a history in sales and on acquiring the market share, slicing down the
markets of both Symbians and iPhones. This paper will elaborately examine the
predictions about the future of Android phones, considering the present facts and
reasons.

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1.1 History Of ANDROID :

Open Handset Alliance (OHA) a confederation of 50 Telecoms, mobile

hardware, and software companies, headed by Google, was found on 5th of
November, 2007. The consortium's goal is deploy, the advanced open standards for
mobile devices. Android is an open source mobile OS platform, purely based on the
Linux operating system, Apache harmony, and Dalvik Virtual machine and was first
developed by Google, later backed by the Open Handset Alliance. A simple and
attractive thing about Android, is its Java-like language based on Google-developed
Java libraries. Recently, for the first time, Google released the Native Development
Kit (NDK) for Android which enables programmers to develop programs and native
application that could run on the device.

1.2 Why 'Google' Android:

The advent of internet can be marked, when it was developed, nearly 3 decades
ago, as a project of the US Department of Defense. But now, Internet technology has
changed the way of every businesses, after the arrival of Google. When a person boots
up his web browser, it's a sure thing, that his home page would be 'Google.com' page,
because, everyone who uses Internet, relies on Google for its accurate web results.

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So, what's all about this Google and the Android thing? Simple, It is a revenue Geyser
for Google and the sweetest thing is that, its not just for Google, since the Android apps
developers are going to be the real beneficiaries. You could have heard about the Mobile
phone advertisements mentioning the features like Yahoo one search and names of other
big WAP and Mobile Web search Giants. Google's entry in to the Mobile OS sector is a
simple strategy to acquire a good piece of the soon-to-boom, Mobile-web Advertising
market. The biggest advantage of Android OS over other Mobile OS is its Open source
status, and open standards which has created some new business models for thousands of
application developers and software development companies. The success of Android
mobiles will be like a chain reaction, since people would prefer cost effective devices
with smartphone like features rather than costly mobiles with a load of unnecessary
features.

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2 ANDROID ARCHITECTURE

Fig: ARCHITECTURE OF ANDROID

Android Architecture is based on Linux 2.6 kernel. It helps to

manage security, memory management, process management,
network stack and other important issues. Therefore, the user should
bring Linux in his mobile device as the main operating system and
install all the drivers required in order to run it. Android provides the
support for the Qualcomm MSM7K chipset family. For instance, the
current kernel tree supports Qualcomm MSM 7200A chipsets, but in
the second half of 2008 we should see mobile devices with stable
version Qualcomm MSM 7200, which includes major features:

 WCDMA/HSUPA and EGPRS network support

 Bluetooth 1.2 and Wi-Fi support

 Digital audio support for mp3 and other formats

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  Support for Linux and other third-party operating

systems

Fig: Kernel Level

 Java hardware acceleration and support for Java

applications

 Qcamera up to 6.0 megapixels

In the next level we can see a set of native libraries written in

C/C++, which are responsible for stable performance of various
components. For example, Surface Manager is responsible for
composing different drawing surfaces on the mobile screen. It
manages the access for different processes to compose 2D and 3D
graphic layers. OpenGL ES and SGL make a core of graphic libraries
and are used accordingly for 3D and 2D hardware acceleration.
Moreover,

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 Fig: Libraries

it is possible to use 2D and 3D graphics in the same application

in Android. The media framework was provided by PacketVideo, one of
the members of OHA. It gives libraries for a playback and recording
support for all the major media and static image files. FreeType
libraries are used to render all the bitmap and vector fonts. For data
storage, Android uses SQLite. As I mentioned before, it is extra light
rational management system, which locates a single file for all
operations related to database. WebKit, the same browser used by
Apples’ Safari, was modified by Android in order to fit better in a small
size screens.

At the same level there is Android Runtime, where the main

component Dalvik Virtual Machine is located. It was designed
specifically for Android running in limited environment, where the
limited battery, CPU, memory and data storage are the main issues.
Android gives an integrated tool “dx”, which converts generated byte
code from .jar to .dex file, after this byte code becomes much more
efficient to run on the small processors. As the result, it is possible to
have multiple instances of Dalvik virtual machine running on the single
device at the same time. The Core libraries are written in Java
language and contains of the collection classes, the utilities, IO and
other tools.

After that, we have Application Framework, written in Java

language. It is a toolkit that all applications use, ones which come with
mobile device like Contacts or SMS box, or applications written by
Google and any Android developer. It has several components which I
will discuss. The Activity Manager manages the life circle of the
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applications and provides a common navigation backstack for
applications, which are running in different processes. The Package
Manager keeps track of the applications, which are installed in the
device. The Windows Manager is Java programming language
abstraction on the top of lower level services that are provided by the
Surface Manager. The Telephony Manager contains of a set of API
necessary for calling applications. Content Providers was built for
Android to share a data with other applications,

Fig: Application Framework

for instance, the contacts of people in the address book can be used in
other applications too. The Resource Manager is used to store localized
strings, bitmaps, layout file descriptions and other external parts of the
application. The View System generates a set of buttons and lists used
in UI. Other components like Notification manager is used to customize
display alerts and other functions.

At the top of Android Architecture we have all the applications,

which are used by the final user. By installing different applications,
the user can turn his mobile phone into the unique, optimized and
smart mobile phone.

Android: Breaking the "Walled Garden":

Like Apple'a Appstore, Google opened its Android market, allowing the apps
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developers to publish their apps without any restrictions. Unlike Apple's Appstore,
Google Android market will not have any restrictions for third party development and
will not run an apps approval systems.

And Android will be breaking another 'Walled garden', that's the mobile carrier
support. In US, AT&T had acquired the rights to sell Apple's iPhones for the next five
years from the date of its release. And in case of the Blackberrys, it is not a fully
carrier-independent handset, since the major part of the sale happens through its
different carriers, worldwide. This approach had left people frustrated, on sticking to
a monopolistic mobile carrier, irrespective of their wish to select a different carrier.
Since, Android is a open source operating system, it could leverage the advantages of
device-independency and service provider-independency.

What's so different in Android?

The good news is for both the consumers and developers. While consumers could
enjoy a low-cost Smart phones running Android, developers were given an unrestricted
customization rights. From a developer's point of view, Android has several advantages,
as listed below:

• The entire Application framework can be reused and replaced by selective

components

• Dalvik virtual machine enhances the power management systems (Learn about
Dalvik VM in the following subtitle)

• Support for 2D and 3D graphics (OpenGL ES 1.0), So lot of business for

animation developers.
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• Reliable and enhanced data storage ( using SQLite framework)

• Developers can create media common applications since it supports common

media file formats(MPEG, MPEG3, MPEG4, H.286, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG,
GIF and more)

• GSM, EDGE, 3G, HSCSD, Wi-Fi network applications support (Depends on

hardware)

• Open source Web-Kit Engine-based web-browser

• GPS, Navigational compass, Touch-Unlock, and accelerometer applications

support (Depends on hardware)

• Androids development environment includes a device emulator,

debugger, performance profiling tool, and an Eclipse IDE plug-in

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 Fig: Some additional features of Android from other Mobiles

3 Advantages of Dalvik Virtual Machine

The Dalvik virtual machine is simple Java interpreter machine, completely

optimized for Android platform and which is developed to run on low-end memory
mobile devices. One of the prominent aspects in Dalvik its capability to run along an
application compilation enhancing the runtime performance of the applications. Dalvik
is not exactly, a Java machine, because Dalvik could not read Java code, but consists
its own byte code called “dex” and so the executable files compacted using Dalvik
holds the file type name '.dex'. Google states that the credit for Androids successful

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development goes to Dalvik VM, because this type of virtual machine, delivers a good
performance over various stages of an application runtime environment, conserving
more battery-power during long run of an application.

Fig: Executing Java Code using DVM in Android mobile

A small drawback with Dalvik, is its none-compatibility with Java SE libraries,

Java ME class libraries and Swing Java libraries, while they cannot be and need not to-
be run directly on this virtual machine. It uses its own Apache Harmony Java
implementation libraries. Despite of the earlier reason, its escalated Android's value
proposition due to its minimal-electrical power consumption, vast library resources,
and non-fragmentary application programming interface, unlike its Java rivals.
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 Java related brands and trademarks are owned by Sun Micro Systems Inc., which
is soon to be acquired by Oracle Corporation. Another significant fact that assures the
open source status of Android, is that Sun Corp, cannot claim on the usage of Java-like
programming language, since Android uses a Java Virtual execution environment
developed by Google. So, there is are lot more opportunities than predicted.

3.2 Android: A promising haven for app developers and OEMs?

Application development companies, equipment manufacturers, and individual

app developers consider, Android platform as the most promising platform due do the
cost efficiency in production values. Google has given the opportunity to develop equal
native applications, with which a user can replace the Google bundle with his own non-
Google bundle applications. Undoubtedly, Android platform is the true open source
platform, but it too has got some limitations. Google tries to hold the platform
development by the third party developers. by restricting them to develop android
applications using, none other than Dalvik Virtual Machine, while ironically, the major
part of the Android is
written in C and C++.

When Android was introduced, the openness of the platform was hyped as the
main strength. Google officials, stated that the Android developers are allowed to
furnish whatever they saw fit to run. This made the entire mobile industry and software
development companies to dream about the fruit of the eternal development cycle and
the revenue generated through it.

Now, number of Androids have began to appear. But the first Android phone G1,
released by US- based T-Mobile, which was a completely packed Google phone. While
recently, HTC, who is the manufacturer of the G1 handset, is offering the its own
Android-based HTC Magic, ripping off the Google-based bundles and includes other
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features which is not seen in the other basic Android handsets. This clearly reveals that
manufacturers, software developers and phone carriers want to stand different from the
global competition on Android platform and customization business. So its obvious,
that Android is going to grow like Linux does, offering developers, a chance to develop
applications for different versions of Android by different OEMs.

Fig: Interface with PC

Positively, Android will began sporting multiple interfaces, which will be

modified by different software vendors. Some years back, the same scenario was
witnessed in the Windows Mobile world, and that was to scale the awareness, a
consumer has of the Windows Mobile. By 2012, Android will be completely
customized (in fact, that’s already happening), and it will be definitely lucrative for
app developers, while the competition will heat up, on which handset or whose
carrier’s phone, its going to be.

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4 Market Predictions:
Very few but strong predictions about Android are spreading, worldwide. Firstly,
Android is going to be bigger in terms of consumer reach than its rival, the iPhone OS.
Its just because of a true fact that it will be developed and marketed by all the 50
members of OHA, which includes companies like Google, Samsung, HTC, Sony
Ericsson, T-Mobile, Motorola, Vodafone, Sprint, China mobile and other world leaders
in telecommunication industry.

Fig: Prediction of Market Share for 2012

Secondly, Google's support will make everything possible in this Internet era, but up to
now, they hadn't started making money from their Android-based activities.

On the other hand, by 2012, apart from Symbian and Android, iPhone will
target its businesses development towards its rival, the Blackberry in their segment.

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But predictions say that, Android is completely made for mass market, and its lack
of business features (Unlike, Winslow Mobile and Blackberry, while both them has
business exchange compatibility and PC-Synchronization features) will create new
chances for its rivals.

According to Gartner, Android’s smartphone market share will grow to 14

percent from less than 2 percent by 2012, and the Symbian’s slide will continue, giving
way to Android. That kind of historical performance by Android would mirror the
Apple iPhone's rule. The first- generation iPhone was launched in 2007, in the U.S. and
immediately, it took the world by storm. On its release, the iPhones grabbed a good
11% of the smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2009 and continued to
expand day by day. But the predictions about Android’s gathering momentum, will
overtake Apple in just 2 years.

Almost all handset vendors are trying to board the Android's bandwagon, while
the oogle has effectively grown a massive android developer's community, and also,
Android is backed by the America’s largest mobile network carrier, the T-Mobile.

However, the Apple's iPhone remains the overwhelming choice for global users,
skyrocketing the sales, and are offered by numerous operators around the world. While
Apple has successfully grabbing the market inch by inch, by offering a user-friendly,
3G and High speed Internet-capable handset, Android is still fighting in that part, not
only benefiting the Apples, but also benefits the RIM's Blackberry, Windows, Palm OS
and others. Presently, Android may appear to be an invincible giant, but it will take its
own time grab the market in these early times of the super phone-era.

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 Fig:Forecast of Market Share

Recently, Google has fore-casted that nearly 20 Android phones, would be

released by the members of OHA, before the end of this 2009. It is an amazing
progress for a very young open source platform, which is like an 18 month baby
fighting with giants. Googles says that the credits goes to the openness of the
environment and it feels that the Android is not just an Mobile operating system, but it
is a completely Open software development environment for mobile phones.
Android’s entry seems very successful, which is driven by the worldwide acceptance,
and the thirst for an open source mobile environment backed by countless application
development companies and telecommunication leaders. In fact, that every other
Mobile OS vendors had identified Android as an acute and critical threat to their
future.

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5 Security Issues
It is quite difficult to discuss all the security issues, as no Android
phone is build yet. By the prediction, Android mobile phone platform is
going to be more secure than Apple’s iPhone or any other device in the
long run. There are several solutions nowadays to protect Google
phone from various attacks. One of them is security vendor McAfee, a
member of Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation. This foundation joins
particular companies to develop an open mobile-device software
platform. Many of the companies listed in the LiMo Foundation have
also become members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). As a result,
Linux secure coding practice should successfully be built into the
Android development process. However, open platform has its own
disadvantages, such as source code vulnerability for black-hat hackers.
In parallel with great opportunities for mobile application developers,
there is an expectation for exploitation and harm. Stealthy Trojans
hidden in animated images, particular viruses passed from friend to
friend, used for spying and identity theft, all these threats will be active
for a long run. Another solution for such attacks is SMobile Systems
mobile package.

Security Shield
An integrated application that includes anti-virus, anti-spam,
firewall and other mobile protection is up and ready to run on the
Android operating system. Currently, the main problem is availability
for viruses to pose as an application and do things like dial phone
numbers, send text messages or multi-media messages or make
connections to the Internet during normal device use. It is possible for
somebody to use the GPS feature to track a person’s location without
their knowledge. Hence SMobile Systems is ready to notify and block
these secure alerts. But the truth is that it is not possible to secure
your mobile device or personal computer completely, as it connects to
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the internet. And neither the Android phone nor other devices will
prove to be the exception.

6 Applications
At the top of Android Architecture we have all the applications, which are used by
the final user. By installing different applications, the user can turn his mobile phone into
the unique, optimized and smart mobile phone. Few applications are

Fig: Applications of ANDROID

6.1 Application Building Blocks

Google provides three versions of SDK: for Windows, for Mac OSX and one for
Linux. The developer can use Android plugin for Eclipse IDE or other IDEs such as
intelliJ. First step for Android developer is to decompose the prospective application into
the components, which are supported by the platform. The major building blocks are
these:
 Activity
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  Intent Receiver

 Service

 Content Provider

Activity – user interface component, which corresponds to one screen at time. It means
that for the simple application like Address Book, the developer should have one activity
for displaying contacts, another activity component for displaying more detailed
information of chosen name and etc. Intent Receiver – wakes up a predefined action
through the external event. For example, for the application like Email Inbox, the
developer should have intent receiver and register his code through XML to wake up an
alarm notification, when the user receives email. Service – a task, which is done in the
background. It means that the user can start an application from the activity window and
keep the service work, while browsing other applications.
For instance, he can browse Google Maps application while holding a call or
listening music while browsing other applications. Content Provider – a component,
which allows sharing some of the data with other processes and applications. It is the best
way to communicate the applications between each other. Secondly, a developer should
predefine and list all components, which he wants to use in the specific
AndroidManifest.xml file. It is a required file for all the applications and is located in the
root folder. It is possible to specify all global values for the package, all the components
and its classes used, intent filters, which describe where and when the certain activity
should start, permissions and instrumentation like security control and testing. Here is an
example of AndroidManifest.xml file:

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7 CONCLUSION

• Giants like Nokia and Microsoft are not the part of the OHA, so Android
won’t become so powerful for now. It depends on the stability and
continuous support for the platform.

• Microsoft’s ‘windows mobile’ has a big selling point in the form of ,

its integrity with Microsoft Office and other Microsoft-owned tools,
So, Android has to concentrate on developing PC compatibility apps
using the Google Office Apps.

• We are not talking about the very success of Android, since it has its own
challenges, like its development task. Though, Android is a complete mobile
handset platform, encompassing a mobile operating system, a browser , some
middle ware, and other application environment, that all depends upon the
future investments, and innovations upon the development of an all-
encompassing new technology.

Apart from Google, Apps developers and vendors are predicted to be the major
beneficiaries, since they would make most out of the Android with its wider market
structure backed by all the members of OHA, developing different versions of Android,
and driving the Android's apps market to a new edge, defeating all the others.

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8 References:

• From Gizmodo's
http://gizmodo.com/5395801/android-20-review-almost-human

• Learn Android
http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html

• Introduction to Android by Jason Chen who is developer advocate

at Google http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ZZ-R3p_w8

• What Apple did for smartphones, Google may do for all the rest
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?
story_id=12304882&fsrc=nwl

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