All You Need to Know About Android Phone ( A Beginner's guide)

An Example of an Android phone

According to the Wikipedia;

Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. 

In addition, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Wear OS for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on game consoles, digital cameras, PCs and other electronics.

Android has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011 and on tablets since 2013. As of May 2017.

It has over two billion monthly active users, the largest installed base of any operating system, and as of 2017, the Google Play store features over 3.5 million apps.

Android Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, in October 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White.^[14][15] Rubin described the Android project as "tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences"

When it first came out, the Android operating system was without very many enterprise features and the devices were geared towards consumers. In recent iterations of the OS, however, Google has added some better Android device management capabilities. Despite the move toward a happy friendship between the enterprise and Android, application malware and security concerns persist.

But allowing Androids in your company isn't necessarily out of the question. Take a look at the issues you could run into and check out the OS-native and third-party ways you can guard against those problems.

Android is the most popular mobile OS out there, but that doesn't make it any easier for IT to manage and secure. In fact, Google's open source approach and the diverse collection of devices that run on Android complicate IT's strategy toward the OS. However, Google has shifted its attention toward the enterprise in recent years, so organizations have plenty of options to control Android devices for safe and productive use in the workplace.

ANDROID VERSION HISTORY

Code Name	Version	Release Date
No Codename	1	September 23, 2008
Petit Four	1.1	February 9, 2009
Cupcake	1.5	April 27, 2009
Donut	1.6	September 15, 2009
Eclair	2.0 - 2.1	October 26, 2009
Froyo	2.2 - 2.2.3	May 20, 2010
Gingerbread	2.3 - 2.3.7	December 6, 2010
Honeycomb	3.0 - 3.2.6	February 22, 2011
Ice Cream Sandwich	4.0 - 4.0.4	October 18, 2011
Jelly Bean	4.1 - 4.3.1	July 9, 2012
KitKat	4.4 - 4.4.4	October 31, 2013
Lollipop	5.0 - 5.1.1	November 12, 2014
Marshmallow	6.0 - 6.0.1	October 5, 2015
Nougat	7.0 - 7.1.2	August 22, 2016
Oreo	8.0 - 8.1	August 21, 2017
Android P	9	In View

What’s with those sweet code names?

While most Android releases have candy or dessert-style code names, the first version of the OS (1.0) that was publicly released in Sept. 2008 did not have a code name at all, either internally or publicly, according to what Android engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru told Android Police in 2012. Android 1.1, released in Feb. 2009, didn’t have a public code name. However, it reportedly used the internal name “Petit four” while it was in development at Google. The name refers to a French dessert.

It was not until the launch of Android 1.5, just a few months later in April 2009, that the OS version got its first public code name: “Cupcake.” The credit for naming Android versions after sweet candy and desserts has traditionally gone to its project manager at Google, Ryan Gibson, but his specific reasons for using such a name remain unknown. When Google released Android 4.4 KitKat, it offered an”official” statement on their various code names for versions of the OS, saying, “Since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version is named after a dessert.”

The Android logo

 The now-familiar logo for the Android OS, which looks like a combination of a robot and a green bug, was created by Irina Blok while she was employed by Google. In a chat with The New York Times in 2013, Blok said that the only directive that was given to her design team by Google was to make the logo look like a robot. She claims that the final design was inspired in part by looking at the familiar restroom logos representing “Men” and “Women.”

One thing that Blok and Google decided to do was to make the Android robot itself an open source project. Nearly every other huge company would protect such a logo or mascot from being redesigned and used by others. However, the Android robot has now been modified and used by tons of people, all because Google allows such changes under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

The future of Android?

Android has come a long way from its humble beginnings, as the product of a small start up, all the way to becoming the leading mobile operating system worldwide. There are hints that Google is in the very early stages of developing an all-new OS, called Fuchsia, that may support everything from smartphones to tablets, and even to notebook and desktop PCs. However, the company has said almost nothing about its plans for Fuchsia, and it’s more than possible that it may cancel its development.

This just shows that Google is still extremely committed to furthering the development of Android, and has even tried to extend the mobile and tablet OS to other devices, including Android TV, Android Auto and Android Wear. Depending on which research firm you believe, Android’s worldwide smartphone market share is currently between 85 and 86 percent, with iOS a distant second at between 14 and 15 percent. All other mobile operating systems (Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile, BlackBerry, Tizen, and the rest) now have less that 0.1 percent of the phone market. In May 2017, during Google I/O, the company said there are now over two billion active devices running some version of the Android OS.

One challenge for Android device owners that has been an issue for the OS ever since it launched is updating it with the latest security patches, to say nothing of over-the-air rollouts for major feature updates for the OS. Google’s supported Nexus and Pixel devices consistently receive regular monthly security updates, and the latest version of the OS. Third party phones are a lot more hit and miss with new security patches and often quickly drop off seeing new OS updates. A few phones, especially unlocked ones that are in the budget category, may not receive any updates at all. Google’s introduction of Project Treble in Android Oreo should make it easier for phone makers to update their devices faster, but it remains to be seen if those efforts will be effective in the long run.

Conclusion

Unless Apple decides to start selling new iPhones that are much cheaper than its current models, it would seem reasonable to predict that Android will continue to dominate the mobile OS market, even with its problems providing swift updates. The OS is being installed on phones that are sold for far less than $100, all the way to expensive flagship devices like the current champion: the Samsung Galaxy S8. That flexibility, combined with yearly updates, will ensure Android will remain the leader in this industry for years to come.
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