ANDROID

ABSTRACT: -

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating

system, middleware and key applications. Android is a software platform and
operating system for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and
developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write
managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries,
but does not support programs developed in native code.

The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced

with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware,
software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile
devices. When released in 2008, most of the Android platform will be made available
under the Apache free-software and open-source license.
1. INTRODUCTION

Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating

system, middleware and key applications. Android is a software platform and
operating system for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and
developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write
managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries,
but does not support programs developed in native code.

The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced

with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware,
software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile
devices. When released in 2008, most of the Android platform will be made available
under the Apache free-software and open-source license.

1.1 THE BIRTH OF ANDROID

1.1.1. Google Acquires Android Inc.

In July 2005, Google acquired Android Inc., a small startup company based in
Palo Alto, CA. Android's co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy
Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire Communications,
Inc), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (one of the first engineers at
WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android Inc. other than
they made software for mobile phones.

At Google, the team, led by Rubin, developed a Linux-based mobile device

OS which they marketed to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a
flexible, upgradeable system. It was reported that Google had already lined up a series
of hardware component and software partners and signaled to carriers that it was open
to various degrees of cooperation on their part.

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1.1.2. Open Handset Alliance Founded

On 5 November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of several

companies which include Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile,
Sprint Nextel and NVIDIA, was unveiled with the goal to develop open standards for
mobile devices. Along with the formation of the Open Handset Alliance, the OHA
also unveiled their first product, Android, an open source mobile device platform
based on the Linux operating system.

1.1.3. Hardware

Google has unveiled at least three prototypes for Android, at the Mobile
World Congress on February 12, 2008. One prototype at the ARM booth displayed
several basic Google applications. A 'd-pad' control zooming of items in the dock with
a relatively quick response.

A prototype at the Google IO conference on May 28, 2008 had a 528 MHz
Qualcomm processor and a Synaptic capacitive touch screen, and used the UMTS
cellular standard. It had 128 MB of RAM and 256 MB of flash, showing that
Android's memory requirements are reasonable. The demo was carried out using a 3.6
Mbps HSDPA connection.

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1.2 FEATURES

1.2.1. Application Framework

It is used to write applications for Android. Unlike other embedded mobile

environments, Android applications are all equal, for instance, an applications
which come with the phone are no different than those that any developer
writes. The framework is supported by numerous open source libraries such as
openssl, SQLite and libc. It is also supported by the Android core libraries. From the
point of security, the framework is based on UNIX file system permissions that assure
applications have only those abilities that mobile phone owner gave them at install
time.

1.2.2. Dalvik Virtual Machine

It is extremely low-memory based virtual machine, which was designed

especially for Android to run on embedded systems and work well in low power
situations. It is also tuned to the CPU attributes. The Dalvik VM creates a special
file format (.DEX) that is created through build time post processing.
Conversion between Java classes and .DEX format is done by included “dx” tool.

1.2.3. Integrated Browser

Google made a right choice on choosing WebKit as open source web browser.
They added a two pass layout and frame flattening. Two pass layout loads a page
without waiting for blocking elements, such as external CSS or external
JavaScript and after a while renders again with all resources downloaded to the
device. Frame flattening converts founded frames into single one and loads
into the browser. These features increase speed and usability browsing the internet
via mobile phone.

1.2.4. Optimized Graphics

As Android has 2D graphics library and 3D graphics based on OpenGL

ES 1.0, possibly we will see great applications like Google Earth and
spectacular games like Second Life, which come on Linux version. At this moment,
the shooting legendary 3D game Doom was presented using Android on the mobile
phone.

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1.2.5. SQLite

Extremely small (< 500kb) relational database management system, is

integrated in Android. It is based on function calls and single file, where all
definitions, tables and data are stored. This simple design is more than suitable for a
platform such as Android.

1.2.6. Handset Layouts

The platform is adaptable to both larger, VGA, 2D graphics library, 3D

graphics library based on OpenGL ES 1.0 specifications, traditional smart phone
layouts. An underlying 2D graphics engine is also included. Surface Manager
manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D
graphic layers from multiple applications

1.2.7. Data Storage

SQLite is used for structured data storage .SQLite is a powerful and

lightweight relational database engine available to all applications.

1.2.8. Connectivity

Android supports a wide variety of connectivity technologies including GSM,

CDMA, Bluetooth, EDGE, EVDO, 3G and Wi-Fi.

1.2.9. Messaging

SMS, MMS, and XMPP are available forms of messaging including threaded
text messaging.

1.2.10. Web Browser

The web browser available in Android is based on the open-source WebKit

application framework. It includes LibWebCore which is a modern web browser
engine which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view.

1.2.11. Java Virtual Machine

Software written in Java can be compiled into Dalvik byte codes and executed
in the Dalvik virtual machine, which is a specialized VM implementation designed for
mobile device use, although not technically a standard Java Virtual Machine.

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1.2.12. Media Support

Android will support advanced audio/video/still media formats such as

MPEG-4, H.264, MP3, and AAC, AMR, JPEG, PNG, GIF.

1.2.13. Additional Hardware Support

Android is fully capable of utilizing video/still cameras, touch screens, GPS,

compasses, accelerometers, and accelerated 3D graphics.

1.2.14. Development Environment

Includes a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance

profiling, and a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE. There are a number of hardware
dependent features, for instance, a huge media and connections support, GPS,
improved support for Camera and simply GSM telephony. A great work was done
for the developers to start work with Android using device emulator, tools for
debugging and plug-in for Eclipse IDE.

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2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC
2.1 OPERATION
2.1.1. Android Runtime

Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality
available in the core libraries of the Java programming language. Every Android
application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual
machine. Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently.

The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is
optimized for minimal memory footprint. The VM is register-based, and runs classes
compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into the .dex format
by the included "dx" tool. The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for underlying
functionality such as threading and low-level memory management.

2.1.2. Linux Kernel

Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security,
memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. The
kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the
software stack.

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.

Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core
applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of
components; any application can publish its capabilities and any other application
may then make use of those capabilities (subject to security constraints enforced by
the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user.
Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems.

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2.2 ARCHITECTURE

The following diagram shows the major components of the Android operating
system. Each section is described in more detail below.

Figure 2.1: Architecture of Android

2.2.1. Linux Kernel

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:

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 WCDMA/HSUPA and EGPRS network support
 Bluetooth 1.2 and Wi-Fi support
 Digital audio support for mp3 and other formats
 Support for Linux and other third-party operating systems
 Java hardware acceleration and support for Java applications
 Qcamera up to 6.0 megapixels
 gpsOne – solution for GPS

2.2.2. Libraries

In the next level there are 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, it is possible to use 2D
and 3D graphics in the same application in Android. The media framework was
provided by Packet Video, one of the members of OHA. It gives libraries for a
playback and recording support for all the major media and static image files. Free
Type libraries are used to render all the bitmap and vector fonts. For data storage,
Android uses SQLite. As 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.

2.2.3. Android Runtime

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.

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Figure 2.2: Conversion from .java to .dex file

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.

2.2.4. Application Framework

After that, there is 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.

The Activity Manager manages the life circle of the applications and provides
a common navigation back stack 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.

2.2.5. Application Layer

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. All applications are written
using the Java programming language.

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2.3 DEVELOPING APPLICATIONS

2.3.1. Application Building Blocks

We can think of an Android application as a collection of components, of

various kinds. These components are for the most part quite loosely coupled, to the
degree where you can accurately describe them as a federation of components rather
than a single cohesive application.
Generally, these components all run in the same system process. It's possible
(and quite common) to create multiple threads within that process, and it's also
possible to create completely separate child processes if you need to. Such cases are
pretty uncommon though, because Android tries very hard to make processes
transparent to your code.
Google provides three versions of SDK for Windows, for Mac OSX and one
for Linux. The developer can use Android plug-in 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
 Intent Receiver
 Service
 Content Provider
2.3.2. AndroidManifest.xml

The AndroidManifest.xml file is the control file that tells the system what to
do with all the top-level components (specifically activities, services, intent receivers,
and content providers described below) you've created. For instance, this is the "glue"
that actually specifies which Intents your Activities receive.

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.

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Here is an example of AndroidManifest.xml file:
1. <? Xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2. <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
3. package="dk.mdev.android.hello">
4. <application android: icon="@drawable/icon">
5. <activity class=".Hello Android" android: label="@string/app_name">
6. <intent-filter>
7. <action android: value="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
8. <category android: value="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
9. </intent-filter>
10. </activity>
11. </application>
12. </manifest>
The line 2 is a namespace declaration, which makes a standard Android
attributes available for that application. In the line 4 there is a single <application>
element, where the developer specifies all application level components and its
properties used by the package. Activity class in the line 5 represents the initial
screen the user sees and it may have one or more <intent-filter> elements to describe
the actions that activity supports.

2.3.3. Application Lifecycle

In Android, every application runs in its own process, which gives better
performance in security, protected memory and other benefits. Therefore, Android is
responsible to run and shut down correctly these processes when it is needed.

It is important that application developers understand how different

application components (in particular Activity, Service, and Broadcast Receiver)
impact the lifetime of the application's process. Not using these components correctly
can result in the system killing the application's process while it is doing important
work.

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 To determine which processes should be killed when low on memory, Android
places each process into an "importance hierarchy" based on the components running
in them and the state of those components. These process types are (in order of
importance).
1. A foreground process is one that is required for what the user is currently doing.
Various application components can cause its containing process to be considered
foreground in different ways. A process is considered to be in the foreground if
any of the following conditions hold:
1.1. It is running an Activity at the top of the screen that the user is interacting
with (it’s on Resume () method has been called).
1.2. It has a Broadcast Receiver that is currently running (it’s
BroadcastReceiver.onReceive () method is executing).
1.3. It has a Service that is currently executing code in one of its callbacks
(Service.onCreate (), Service.onStart (), or Service.onDestroy ()).
1.4. There will only ever be a few such processes in the system, and these will
only be killed as a last resort if memory is so low that not even these
processes can continue to run. Generally, at this point, the device has reached
a memory paging state, so this action is required in order to keep the user
interface responsive.
2. A visible process is one holding an Activity that is visible to the user on-screen
but not in the foreground (its onPause () method has been called). This may occur,
for example, if the foreground Activity is displayed as a dialog that allows the
previous Activity to be seen behind it. Such a process is considered extremely
important and will not be killed unless doing so is required to keep all foreground
processes running.
3. A service process is one holding a Service that has been started with the
startService () method. Though these processes are not directly visible to the user,
they are generally doing things that the user cares about (such as background mp3
playback or background network data upload or download), so the system will
always keep such processes running unless there is not enough memory to retain
all foreground and visible process.
4. A background process is one holding an Activity that is not currently visible to the
user (its onStop () method has been called). These processes have no direct impact
on the user experience. Provided they implement their Activity life-cycle correctly

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 (see Activity for more details), the system can kill such processes at any time to
reclaim memory for one of the three previous processes types. Usually there are
many of these processes running, so they are kept in an LRU list to ensure the
process that was most recently seen by the user is the last to be killed when
running low on memory.
5. An empty process is one that doesn't hold any active application components. The
only reason to keep such a process around is as a cache to improve startup time
the next time a component of its application needs to run. As such, the system will
often kill these processes in order to balance overall system resources between
these empty cached processes and the underlying kernel caches.

Figure 2.3: Flowchart Showing the Lifecycle of an Activity

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 In the following example we will display a process flow from the Android
System point of view to get a clear idea how the applications behave. Let assume the

Possible scenario: A user talks to his friend via mobile phone and he is asked to
browse the internet (a talk is hold for a moment), find a picture of him in his Picasa
Album, send it via Email back to his friend and resume a talk.

In this situation, there are 4 different applications and 4 different processes

running, but from the user point of view none of them are important, as Android
manages CPU work and memory usage by itself. It means the user can travel through
the applications forward and back without thinking about how much memory is left or
which processes are run at the time. Firstly, as the user is talking to his friend, a
specific Talk application is opened, which contains the activity manager. In the
following stack we can see two processes running, the main system process and Talk
application process. Moreover, before going to Web Browser application, the system
saves a Talk state T in order to remember that process:

At this point, as a user holds a talk and opens a web browser, the system
creates a new process and new web browser activity is launched in it. Again, the state
of the last activity is saved (W):

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 After that, the user browses the internet, finds his picture in Picasa album and
saves it to particular folder. He does not close a web browser, instead he opens a
folder to find saved picture. The folder activity is launched in particular process:

At this point, the user finds his saved picture in the folder and he creates a
request to open an Email application. The last state F is saved. Now assume that the
mobile phone is out of the memory and there is no room to create a new process for
Email application. Therefore, Android looks to kill a process. It can not destroy
Folder process, as it was used previously and could be reused again, so it kills Web
Browser process as it is not useful anymore and locates a new Email process instead;

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 The user opens Email application and sends a picture to his friend via email.
Now he wants to go back to the Talk application and to resume a talk to his friend.
Because of the previously saved states, this work is done fast and easily. In this
example, Email application is popped out and the user sees a previous Folder
application:

Next, the user goes back to Web Browser application. Unfortunately, web
browser process was killed previously so the system has to kill another process (in our
case it is Email application process, which is not used anymore) in order to locate
Web Browser process and manage the stack memory:

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 Now the user comes back to the Talk application and resumes his talk with his
friend. Because of the saved states, going back procedure is fast and useful, because it
remembers previous activities and its views.
This example shows, that it does not matter how many applications and processes are
active or how much available memory is left, Android it manages fast and without a
user interaction.

2.3.4. Application Framework

Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core
applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of
components; any application can publish its capabilities and any other application
may then make use of those capabilities (subject to security constraints enforced by
the framework). This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user.

Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:

1. A rich and extensible set of Views that can be used to build an application,
including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and even an embeddable web
browser

2. Content Providers that enable applications to access data from other

applications (such as Contacts), or to share their own data

3. A Resource Manager, providing access to non-code resources such as

localized strings, graphics, and layout files

4. A Notification Manager that enables all applications to display custom

alerts in the status bar

5. An Activity Manager that manages the life cycle of applications and

provides a common navigation backtrack

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2.3.5. Library

 Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of

the Android system. These capabilities are exposed to developers through
the Android application framework. Some of the core libraries are listed
below:

 System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C

system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linux-based devices

 Media Libraries - based on Packet Video’s Open CORE; the libraries

support playback and recording of many popular audio and video formats,
as well as static image files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR,
JPG, and PNG

 Surface Manager - manages access to the display subsystem and

seamlessly composites 2D and 3D graphic layers from multiple
applications.

 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the

libraries use either hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the
included, highly optimized 3D software rasterizer.

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2.4 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

The feedback on developing applications for the Android platform has been
mixed. Issues cited include bugs, lack of documentation, inadequate QA .The first
publicly available application was the Snake game.

2.4.1. Software Development kit

It includes development and debugging tools, a set of libraries, a device

emulator, documentation, sample projects, tutorials, and FAQs. Requirements also
include Java Development Kit, Apache Ant, and Python 2.2 or later. The only
officially supported integrated development environment (IDE) is Eclipse 3.2 or later,
through the Android Development Tools Plug-in, but programmers can use command
line tools to create, build and debug Android applications.

Partial Listing of Open Handset Alliance Participants

Core Technology Vendors

Figure 2.12

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2.5 SECURITY ISSUES

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 the internet. And neither the Android phone nor other devices will prove
to be the exception.

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2.6 COMPARISON

2.6.1 Speculations With Cellular Carriers

Google Android enters a tangled mess of cellular carrier world. As a new

player in the mobile market, Android brings an open platform with the new rules. On
the one hand there is OHA with major companies and carries, such as T -Mobile and
Sprint. On the other hand, there are two largest cellular carries AT&T and Verizon
Wireless in United States, which have a vested interest in operating systems of their
own. It is predictable, that Sprint or T-Mobile will be first carriers providing devices
with Google Android. This ensures equal development time for the networks, GSM
side and CDMA. But the main problem, which faces all the cellular carriers around
the world, is the availability to download and use free applications that could block
almost every communications product they sell. A user does not need to pay for GPS
mapping service anymore. He can simply download a free one that taps into Google
Maps.

In fact, why pay for cellular minutes at all when a user can download Skype,
Gtalk or other client and just use his data plan? OS’s such as Android threaten carriers
with a loss of control over the applications on the phones on their network and they
may find themselves becoming nothing more than wireless Internet service providers,
forced to compete on price and bandwidth.

2.6.2 Manufacturers’ War

Presently, Google main competitors like Nokia, Microsoft and Apple do not
see Google Android as a serious rival or threat to their business strategies. However,
the current situation is not so unsophisticated. There is a huge flurry in the companies,
which are not in the list of OHA.

For instance, Nokia, which is the largest handset manufacturer in the world,
nowadays owning some 39% market share, was one of the companies snubbed on the
invitation list to the 34-party Open Handset Alliance that is growing daily.

In contrast, Nokia is buying companies and dumping cash into development,

while Google is releasing an open platform hoping the applications and services will

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build themselves with the help of a strong developer community, development
contests and large alliance of grand companies.

Despite of this, Nokia is ready to combat whatever Google has to throw with
Google Android in 2008. Another company Apple has already stroked the market
with iPhone and its closed operating system. Accordingly, iPhone in the US remains
loyal to AT&T mobile carrier for five years.

That is plenty of time for Google to conquer the market with open Android.
Obvious advantage of Android is cost: while iPhone is priced at a weighty $400,
Google says it hopes to reach a more mainstream market by pricing Android-powered
devices at around $200. Microsoft, selling 21 millions copies of Windows Mobile
software, stays calm at this point, waiting for some particular results from Google
Android.

2.6.3 Market Research

A new generation of mobile device users is coming in the next decade. These
users are going to explore the mobile internet afresh with its new features, compatible
mobile phones, new services and applications.

This is a huge leap for mobile advertisement business, where revenue could
rise 8 times more by 2012. Google Android is going to present new solutions through
the fast search engine, open source applications and other services.

The Kelsey Group, which works with public opinion polls and statistics,
published the results released October 11 2007,which say, that one hundred out of
500, or 20 percent of people would be interested in purchasing a Google phone.
Despite the fact, that Google Android is in alpha version and it is unknown for the
customers and mobile market, the results look promising.

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 The diagram below shows the study, which was conducted in September 2007
via an online 30-question survey of 500 U.S. mobile phone users aged 18 and older.
People do not find a good Internet experience in their phones today, so they are more
interested in gravitating toward an Internet or technology company telephone

Figure 2.13

because they think connectivity between devices and to the Internet is going to be
much better on those phones. They use Google search, GMail, Google Maps, Picasa
albums and other popular services on their computers, and this is what they expect to
have in their mobile devices in the close future.

2.6.4 Mobile Ads

Jaiku - an activity stream and sharing service that works from the Web and
mobile phones was bought by Google as important investment into the mobile
advertisement. People wondered why Google preferred the micro-blogging service to
Twitter, which is much more popular nowadays.

The answer lies in Jaiku’s unique ability to combine micro-blogging with

user’s location. An integral part of the service is a Jaiku client application for
Symbian S60 platform mobile phones, which should come to Android platform as
well. The client uses location APIs within device to get the handset and the users’
location based on nearby cellular network towers.

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 Though the location is not very precise, the mobile phone is able to broadcast
it automatically. At that point the text can be connected to users’ location and create a
list of preferences for each place the user frequently visits.

Using such a technology, it is simple to track down a user via phone’s IP

address, whenever he comes into McDonald or is sitting in the airport. Google is not a
million miles away from being able to push advanced advertising to individuals based
on their profile, their location and their availability. They already offer regional and
local targeting for ads for desktop users, but this could be much more useful for a
mobile phone. And if the ads are truly relevant, interesting and unobtrusive, people
might actually start to like them.

2.6.5 Mobile Services

Adding to its fast growing suite of mobile applications and services, Google
has applied for a patent for a mobile payments service that would allow users to make
payments at retail shops using their mobile phones.

Figure 2.14 : Figure describes Google’s mobile focused payments called GPay

Described as "a computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic

on-line payment," the system mentioned in the patent application is similar to existing
mobile payment services.

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2.6.6 What makes Android special?

There are already many mobile platforms on the market today, including
Symbian, iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Java Mobile Edition, Linux Mobile
(LiMo), and more.

While some of its features have appeared before, Android is the first environment that
combines:

 A truly open, free development platform based on Linux and open source.
Handset makers like it because they can use and customize the platform
without paying a royalty. Developers like it because they know that the
platform “has legs” and is not locked into any one vendor that may go
under or be acquired.

 A component-based architecture inspired by Internet mash-ups. Parts of

one application can be used in another in ways not originally envisioned
by the developer. You can even replace built-in components with your
own improved versions. This will unleash a new round of creativity in the
mobile space.

 Tons of built-in services out of the box. Location based services use GPS
or cell tower triangulation to let you customize the user experience
depending on where they are. A full-powered SQL database lets you
harness the power of local storage for occasionally connected computing
and synchronization. Browser and Map views can be embedded directly in
your applications. All these built-in capabilities help to raise the bar on
functionality while lowering your development costs.

 Automatic management of the application life cycle. Programs are isolated

from each other by multiple layers of security, which will provide a level
of system stability not seen before in smart phones. The end user will no
longer have to worry about what applications are active, or close some
programs so that others can run. Android is optimized for low-power, low-
memory devices in a fundamental way that no previous platform has
attempted.

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  High quality graphics and sound. Smooth, anti-aliased 2D vector graphics
and animation inspired by Flash is melded with 3D accelerated OpenGL
graphics to enable new kinds of games and business applications. Codec’s
for the most common industry standard audio and video formats are built
right in, including H.264 (AVC), MP3, and AAC.

 Portability across a wide range of current and future hardware. All your
programs are written in Java and executed by Android’s Dalvik virtual
machine so your code will be portable across ARM,x86, and other
architectures. Support for a variety of input methods is included such as
keyboard, touch, tilt, camera, voice, and trackball. User interfaces can be
customized for any screen resolution and orientation. Android is a fresh
take on the way mobile applications interact with users, along with the
technical underpinnings to make it possible. But the best part of Android is
the software that you are going to write for it. This book will help you get
off to a great start.

2.6.7 Android And Java ME

Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME (previously known as Java 2

Platform, Micro Edition or J2ME) is a specification of a subset of the Java platform
aimed at providing a certified collection of Java APIs for the development of
software for small, resource-constrained devices. Though, do not confuse it with
Google Android, even there are some similarities:

 Eclipse plug-ins for J2ME and Android look very similar and interface very
well with their respective SDKs;

 Both J2ME and Android seem to share the same core Java APIs, such as
java.util and java.net. But their APIs for graphics, UIs, etc. are very
dissimilar and philosophies for developing applications are very different;

 Android seems to be more tightly integrated (up to even the OS services

provided and how they interact with the APIs), while J2ME is far more
liberal in its specifications for the developer and mobile device manufacturer.

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 A slower application development and performance – these are the main
disadvantages Java's J2ME have for today. J2ME apps are second-rate citizens
in the phones. They do not have an access to most of the low-level features,
like call API, external connectivity (USB) and other. There is no way to
replace or extend built-in phone apps like contacts, calendar and calls.

 For instance, J2ME applications in Nokia devices with S60 work great for
standard tasks. But more advanced users find difficulties handling Wi-Fi
access points with S60, because APIs simply do not seem to be exposed
to J2ME. A user may find difficulties synchronizing Google Calendar with
his device - nobody seems to have been able to figure out how to make the
J2ME calendar interfaces work correctly on S60. There are lots of
problems with Java applications on S60, even though S60 probably has one of
the best Java implementations.

 Android fills a void in Java Mobile applications by providing API to build

richer applications - more useful for Smart Phones which contain the ability to
provide these types of functionalities. If J2ME filled every void, Android as an
API wouldn't be needed (though Android as an OS could still fill a void).

 Google has written its own virtual machine for Android most likely as a way
to get around licensing issues with Sun. However, Android does not include a
complete and compliant Java stack (neither JME nor JSE); only a subset and
therefore it is technically not the Java platform, it just looks a lot like it.

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2.6.8 Advantages

 Open - Android allows you to access core mobile device functionality through
standard API calls.

 All applications are equal - Android does not differentiate between the phone's
basic and third-party applications -- even the dialer or home screen can be
replaced.

 Breaking down boundaries - Combine information from the web with data on
the phone -- such as contacts or geographic location -- to create new user
experiences.

 Fast and easy development - The SDK contains what you need to build and
run Android applications, including a true device emulator and advanced
debugging tools.

2.6.9 Disadvantages

 Security - Making source code available to everyone inevitably invites the

attention of black hat hackers.

 Open Source - A disadvantage of open-source development is that anyone can

scrutinize the source code to find vulnerabilities and write exploits.

 Login - Platform doesn't run on an encrypted file system and has a vulnerable
log-in.

 Incompetence - Google’s dependence on hardware and carrier partners puts

the final product out of their control.

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