Android Android is a complete operating environment based upon the Linux V2.6 kernel.

Initially, the deployment target for Android was the mobile-phone arena, including smart phones and lowercost flip-phone devices. However, Android's full ranges of computing services and rich functional support have the potential to extend beyond the mobile-phone market. Android can be useful for other platforms and applications. The Android platform is the product of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of organizations collaborating to build a better mobile phone. The group, led by Google, includes mobile operators, device handset manufacturers, component manufacturers, software solution and platform providers, and marketing companies. From a software development standpoint, Android sits smack in the middle of the open source world. The first Android-capable handset on the market was the G1 device manufactured by HTC and provisioned on T-Mobile. The device became available after almost a year of speculation, where the only software development tools available were some incrementally improving SDK releases. As the G1 release date neared, the Android team released SDK V1.0 and applications began surfacing for the new platform. Android Features: Android has many amazing and unique features that make life more comfortable and advanced for the users. Some of the current features of android are Application Framework that enables reuse and replacement of components Optimized Graphics that is powered by customized 2D graphics library and 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification Media Support for common video, audio, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF) Provision of Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G and Wi-Fi

SQLite for structured data storage Open source WebKit engine based integrated web browser Camera, GPS, Compass, and Accelerometer (dependent on hardware support) GSM Telephony Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices Rich Development environment that includes a device emulator, debugging tools, performance and memory profiling and a Eclipse IDE plugin. Android's outstanding features are that developers can get complete access to the identical framework APIs as used by the core applications. Besides this the app architecture is so designed so as to make the reuse of components simpler and the capabilities of any application can be published and used by any other app subject to the relevant security constraints. The users can also replace the components using the same mechanism.

Android Application Development:

The first release was on November 2007 and after that many updates has been made from its original OS and each updates fix bugs and adds new features from the before version Android is one of the best platform for smartphone and tablet device. Android apps perform well and users get more advantage and Great features for as per needs. Android is provide Great support for Android developers to hardware and software platform and Android OS Offers basic operating system services, message passing, and inter-process communication on the device. Android OS is designed & developed in such technical way that allows Android application developer to utilize third party Android application development. Various Android Development Services : Android Application Development Android Game Development

 Android Social Networking App. Development Android Wireless App. Development Android Web Development Versions of android and they released year are: Beta 5 Nov 2007. v1.0 23 Sept 2008. v1.1 9 Feb 2009. v1.5 cupcake 30 Apr 2009. v1.6 Donut 15 Sept 2009. v2.0 Eclair 26 Oct 2009. v2.2.x Froyo 20 May 2010. v2.3.x Gingerbread 6 Dec 2010. v3.x Honeycomb 22 Feb 2011. v4.x Ice Cream Sandwich 19 Oct 2011