Setting Up for Android Devolopment -1

Step One : Installing Eclipse

Eclipse IDE can be used to develop Android and it is the most popular. That is where you write your Android code and make it to an Android App. Google recommends Eclipse Classic" version.

Read more at  http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/installing-adt.html. 

I ll install Eclipse , go to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
You will see a page like this.

Then click on link for " Eclipse classic 4.2".  I think I better install 64 bit version since my computer's operating system is 64 bit.

Once  I click on "Windows 64 bit" for the classic version, I m directed to a mirror selection page.I select the first section.

Once I click on big green download sign, I m prompted to select a download location.

It is a large file ( 183MB ). So it will take a while to download.Once downloaded , it is shown as below in Firefox downloads dialog.

Once I open down load folder there is a folder called Eclipse. Once it is opened, there is an Application called " Eclipse"Then  I run it.

Then I extract it. First problem :(

Google d the error. Found the reason could be my JDK installation being 64 bit. So, I m going to do it next. Uninstalling JDK and reinstalling it.
http://developer.android.com says JRE alone is not sufficienthttp://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#Requirements. I need to install full JDK 6 (64 bit).

Android Versions...

1 Android beta ( 2007 November)
The first released Android version.


2 Android 1.0 (2008 September)
 The first relased commercial version.First Android device HTC dream ran this version.

3 Android 1.1(2009 February)



4 Android 1.5 Cupcake (2009 April)
First used the desert nickname.


5 Android 1.6 Donut (2009 September)



6 Android 2.0/2.1 Éclair (2009 October)


7 Android 2.2.x Froyo(2010 May)


8 Android 2.3.x Gingerbread (2010 December)


9 Android 3.x Honeycomb (2011 February)
 The first tablet android update.


10 Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich (2011 October)

Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Ice Cream Sandwich.

11 Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (2009 July
The latest version.

I took all these infomation from Wikipedia(Big thank for those contributors) and summarized.  If you need more details , pls see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history

How Android was born?

Even though a company named Android was stared in 2003 by three well known personalities ( Andy Rubin :co-founder of Danger; Rich Miner-co-founder of Wildfire Communications, Inc; Nick Sears - VP at T-Mobile) , the company operated secretly, revealing only that the company is working on a new mobile operating system.


In 2005 Google acquired Android Inc and the road map of the company was reset according the the interests of Google. Google basically wanted their powerful searching technologies to be on mobile devices and working hard towards achieving that objective through Android acquisition. In 2007, they applied to obtain several telephone technology related patents apparently proving this speculation.

In 2007, again several well known companies got together and formed an alliance known as " Open Handset Alliance" and the idea behind was to develop "open stand" for mobile devices. The companies that were involved were, Broadcom Corporation, Google, HTC, Intel, LG, Marvell Technology Group, Motorola, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and Texas Instruments .

As a result of all these efforts, first product , Android, a mobile device platform built on the Linux kernel version 2.6 was introduced.

Why Android?

• Reason 1 : It is the fastest growing mobile operating system according to some market research.
  

I created the graph showing market research trends for mobile operating systems.Other than Android rest of operating systems are desingined for those company headsets. Data are from en.Wikipedia where those data are taken from Gartner Inc (Gartner: Android leads, Windows Phone lags in Q1". Gartner, Inc. 2011-05-19. Table 2. http://news.cnet.com /8301-13506_3-20064223-17.html. Retrieved 2011-05-19.). There are 3 clear observations.

1. After the introduction of android in 2008 and after it got momentum in 2009 , already declining market leader Symbion( Nokia) started to decline in a faster rate and its continuing in the same trend in Q1 in 2011.
2. Blackberry was growing and in 2009 it started declining when Android gain momentum.
3. iOS still growing but slower rate than it was before 2009.

Microsoft and Other OS are already loosing it market shere but this treand could be different now as Microsoft now released new version of its mobile operating system...to be continued...

Coming up........."Why Android?"

Why there is lot of talk about mobile operating system Android? What are the benefits and what is the use of it for developers?What are the similarities and differences advantages and disadvantages of Android when compared to Symbion and IOS?

What is AndroiD ?

AndroiD is an operating system for mobile devices such as mobile telephones and tablet computers developed by Google Inc and the Open Handset Alliance.

Time Line

• Android initially was developed by Android Inc.
• Google purchased Android Inc in 2005.
• Open headset alliance (consist of more than 80 ICT companies) funded and along with Google they unveiled the first version of Android in 2007.

Key Features of Android

• Android is based on Linux Kernel.
• Middleware libraries and APIs are written in C.
• Application software is based on Java compatible libraries.
• Dalvik VM is used to run Java complied Java codes just in time(JIT compilation)

Developer Community

• Android has very large community of its "App" (application) developers.
  
• These developers extend the functionality of Android with their Apps.
  
• They mostly use Java for development.

If you would like to become one of them who develops Apps for Android then this bolg may help you to get a quick start...