1.

Introduction
After Completed this chapter, students able to understand:

 Define all about mobile application development

 Explain about Major Mobile Development Platforms
 Understand how to install IDE android studio
 Explain Mobile Computing

Every day the new devices are incoming to the market with innovative options thanks to growing
technology. The evolution of mobile application development technology with new devices
made our lives much easier.

In the smartphone world, simply having a running website is not enough. A recent study, it has
shown that about 45% and more of Google search happens using smartphones.

The number is spectacular and there is growth within the mobile business. Being obtainable on
an internet-enabled device is needed for every and each business which has given the kicking
start to mobile application development.

We can start explaining mobile development, which is not about building phone apps, though it
is a huge part of it. Actually, it’s doing any reasonable development for any kind of mobile
device such as developing apps for phones, tablets, smartwatches, and every form of wearable
device that run any kind of mobile operating system.

Mobile development presents a reasonably distinctive chance for a one-person development team
to build an actual, usable, significant app end-to-end during a comparatively short period.
However, mobile app development represents more than just a chance for the solo developer to
create their own project as it is arguably the longer term of development, as mobile devices are
getting larger and bigger parts of our lives.

Major Mobile Development Platforms

iOS

iOS is kind of arguably the “big dog” once it comes to major app development platforms,
partially because it had been the platform that finally brought mobile development into the
modern day and age by fully reworking the concept of a mobile device and mobile software
system. iOS is of course developed by Apple, and it runs exclusively on Apple products.

Apple provides iOS developers with many native tools and libraries to develop iOS applications,
and, though you do not have to be enforced to use Apple’s development tools to create your
apps, you just need to have a mac running OS X to build your application.
Android

Android is the other dominant player in this space, it was a bit later participant to the game, first
being released in Sept 2008, virtually a year later than iOS but it has managed to achieve a
reasonably massive share of the mobile market.

Technically, Android is the mobile OS with the largest most dominant share of the market with
around 80% share compared to iOS’s 18 % share. Those numbers are a bit deceiving since
android may be a fragmented market consisting of the many different devices created by
different manufacturers, running completely different versions of the Android OS.

What are the primary differences between iOS and Android?

 Android is backed by Google.

 iOS is backed by Apple.
 Anyone can build an Android device, and it is designed to run on a variety of different
hardware platforms and devices with very different form factors and capabilities.
 iOS is designed to run only on a specific set of Apple devices.
 Android is based on the Linux kernel, and Google releases the source code for Android as
open source.
 Like Apple, Google provides some native tools for Android development but again you
are not required to use them.

1.2. Introduction to Mobile Computing

Mobile computing can be defined as a computing environment over physical mobility. The user
of the mobile computing environment will be able to access data, information or logical objects
from any device in any network while on move. Wireless telecommunications networks are
generally implemented and administered using radio communication. This implementation takes
place at the physical level (layer) of the OSI model network structure.

Mobile Computing is an umbrella term used to describe technologies that enable people to
access network services anyplace, anytime, and anywhere.

Examples of wireless networks include cell phone networks, wireless local area networks
(WLANs), wireless sensor networks, satellite communication networks, and terrestrial
microwave networks.

Mobility/Nomadic is that someone / something can move or be moved easily and quickly from
place to place.

Computing – is the operations of the computer. Types of computing are.

Mobile Computing is a computing that connects a mobile device to network or another

computing device, anytime, anywhere. The user of mobile computing environment will be able
to access data, information or other logical objects from any device in any network while on the
move. The computing environment is mobile and moves along with the user. This is similar to
the telephone number of a GSM (Global System For Mobile Communication) phone, which
moves with the phone. The offline (local) and real time (remote) computing environment will
move with the user. In real time mode user will be able to use all his remote data and service
online.

Nomadic Computing: The computing environment is nomadic and moves along with the
mobile user. It refers to limited migration is within a building at a pedestrian speed, interleaved
pattern of user relocation and indoor connections and users carrying laptop with wireless access
are engaged in nomadic computing.

Pervasive Computing: A computing environment, which is pervasive in nature and can be made
available in any environment. It refers to access to computer network all the time at any location
by any person. It cannot be realized unless mobile computing matures.

Ubiquitous Computing: A disappearing (nobody will notice its presence) every place
computing environment. User will be able to use both local and remote services. Global System
for Mobile Communications (GSM): The GSM network is divided into three major systems:
the switching system, the base station system, and the operation and support system. The cell
phone connects to the base system station which then connects to the operation and support
station; it then connects to the switching station where the call is transferred to where it needs to
go. GSM is the most common standard and is used for a majority of cell phones.

Personal Communications Service (PCS): PCS is a radio band that can be used by mobile
phones in North America and South Asia. Sprint happened to be the first service to set up a PCS.
D-AMPS:

Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service, an upgraded version of AMPS, is being phased out
due to advancement in technology. The newer GSM networks are replacing the older system.
The architectural model of a mobile computing environment is shown in Figure 1.1 and consists
of stationary and mobile components. Fixed hosts are connected together via a fixed high-speed
network (Mbps to Gbps).

Some of the fixed hosts are special computers equipped with wireless interfaces, and are
known as base (radio) stations (BS). They are also known as mobile support stations
(MSS). Base stations, which are placed in the centre of cellular coverage areas, act as access
points between the mobile computers and the fixed network. Mobile computers can be in one of
three states.
fig. mobile computing environment

 The first state places a mobile computer within a cell and capable of communicating.
 The second state places the mobile computer out of range of any service cell and not
capable of communication.
 The third state places a mobile computer in a cell, communicating, but just ready to cross
a cell boundary. These scenarios are depicted in Figure 1.1.

A computing environment is defined as mobile if it supports one or more of these characteristics:

1. User mobility: User should be able to move from one physical location to another location
and use same service

2. Network mobility: User should be able to move from one network to another network and use
same service

3. Device mobility: User should be able to move from one device to another and use same
service

4. Session mobility: A user session should be able to move from one user-agent environment to
another.

5. Service mobility: User should be able to move from one service to another.

6. Host mobility: The user should be either a client or server. The mobile computing functions
can be logically divided into following major segments

1) User with device: The user device, this could be fixed device like desktop computer in
office or a portable device like mobile phone.
 E.g Laptop Computers, Desktop Computers, Fixed Telephones, Mobile Phones, Digital TV with
set top box, palmtop computers, pocket PCs, two-way pagers, handheld terminals etc.

2) Network: Whenever a user is mobile, he will be using different networks at different

places at different time eg GSM, CDMA, iMode, Ethernet, Wireless LAN, and Bluetooth etc.

3) Gateways: This is required to interface different transport bearers. These gateways

convert one specific transport bearer. These gateways convert one specific transport bearer to

1.2. Introduction to Android Development Environment

1.2.1 System Requirements

Android application development may be performed on any of the following system types:

 Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)

 Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)

 Windows 8/10 / 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 8.1 or later

 Mac OS X 10.8.5 or later (Intel based systems only)

 Linux systems with version 2.15 or later of GNU C Library (glibc)

 Minimum of 2GB of RAM (4GB is preferred)

 Approximately 4.5GB of available disk space

Before any work can begin on the development of an Android application, the first step is
to configure a computer system to act as the development platform. This involves a number of
steps consisting of installing the Java Development Kit (JDK) and the Android Studio Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) which also includes the Android Software Development Kit
(SDK). This chapter will cover the steps necessary to install the requisite components for
Android application development on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux based systems.

Android studio installation

Android Studio runs on Java Runtime Environment (JRE). JRE can be installed on Windows,
Mac and Linux computers. We need to follow the steps given below for the installation of
Android Studio independent of our operating system:

1. Installation of Java:

Java is developed by Oracle Inc. There are basically two Java packages: Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) and Java Software Development Kit (JDK). JRE is used for running software
written in Java programming language whereas JDK is utilized for developing Java software.
Therefore, installing JRE is adequate for running Android Studio because we will not develop
Java software here. Please navigate to the following website to download the JRE:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8- downloads-2133155.html.

Installation of Android Studio and Android SDK

Android Studio is bundled with Android Software Development Kit (SDK). Please navigate to
the official download site located at: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html. The
download link for the Windows version is shown at the top of this site but if you scrolldown, you
can find the setup files available for download for other operating systems as shown in Figure
1.2.

Figure.2 download option for java runtime environment

When you download and install Android Studio, Android SDK will also be automatically
installed.

2. Installation of SDK updates: After the installation of Android Studio, it is better to

check SDK updates. For this, run Android Studio and open the SDK manager from Tools
à Android à SDK Manager as shown below:

The SDK Manager window will appear as shown in Figure 1.5.

Figure 5 opening sdk

Figure 6. Android sdk manager

Please open the standalone SDK Manager by clicking the link indicated in Figure 2.4. In
the standalone SDK Manager, click on the “Install … packages” as shown below:
Stand alone sdk manger
After you install the packages, you‟ll have the latest SDK and be ready to develop apps.
However, before our test drive app one more step is needed: setting up the emulators.

Installation of Emulators
Emulators are software that mimics the behavior of real devices. When we develop an
app, we obviously won’t have all the possible devices (Android phones, tablets, etc.)
available at hand. Because of this, we run the apps on emulators for testing on various
devices. Emulators are also called as “Android Virtual Devices (AVDs)” in Android
Studio. When Android Studio is first installed, there is no default AVD. We need to
create one before testing our apps. For this, select Tools à Android AVD Manager as
shown in Figure 2.6.
Figure 7. Launching AVD manager
When AVD Manager appears, there won’t be any AVDs created or installed. Please click
on the + Create a Virtual Device button as shown below:

Figure 7 creating new AVD

AVD Manager will show a detailed window as in Figure 1.8. You can select various
devices with different screen sizes and other hardware properties. You can select device
groups from the left pane as TV, Phone, etc. Phone group is the default selection. In this
group, Nexus 5 is also selected by default. When you click “Next”, you’ll be presented by
choices for the Android version of the AVD as shown in Figure 1.9.
Figure. 8 Selecting new AVD
The recommended targets start from Android 5.1. We can Android 7.0 with Google APIs
(Nougat) as shown in the figure. Then, please click “Next” and give a name you like to
the AVD. I didn’t change the defaults in the next screen as shown in Figure 2.10. After
clicking “Finish”, the AVD is created and shown in the AVD Manager as in Figure 2.11.
You can now try your Android apps on this AVD, which will accurately mimic the
behavior of a real Nexus 5 phone. We can run the AVD by clicking the “Play” button
shown inside the square in Figure 2.11. The virtual device will appear as in Figure 2.12
which you can use like a real Nexus 5 phone. After installing both the development
environment and the emulator, we’re now ready to develop our test drive app, Hello
World, in the next chapter.
Figure 10.Selecting AVD version
Figure 11. Final setting of AVD

Figure.1 newly created AVD

Nexus five Emulator window emulator

Within the Android SDK Tools screen, make sure that the following packages are listed as

Installed in the Status column:

 Android SDK Build-tools

 Android SDK Tools

 Android SDK Platform-tools

 Android Support Repository

  Android Support Library

 Google Repository

 Google USB Driver (Windows only) ·

 Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer)

In the event that any of the above packages are listed as Not Installed or requiring an update,
simply select the checkboxes next to those packages and click on the Apply button to initiate the
installation process.

Once the installation is complete, review the package list and make sure that the selected
packages are now listed as Installed in the Status column. If any are listed as Not installed, make
sure they are selected and click on the Install packages… button again.

An alternative to using the Android SDK settings panel is to access the Standalone SDK
Manager which can be launched using the link in the lower left-hand corner of the settings
screen. The Standalone SDK Manager (Figure 1.13.) provides a similar list of packages together
with options to perform update and installation tasks:

Figure.14 SDK location editor

Once the location of the SDK has been identified, the steps to add this to the PATH variable is
operating system dependent.