Android Platform

1. Introduction

Android is open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. Android does not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone’s capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android platform, users are able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone s home screen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.

2. Obtaining the Required Tools

Now that you know what Android is and what its feature set contains. Before starting to write the first application, however, you need to download the required tools and SDKs as well as to know the concept for them.

2.1. SDK Contents
The ?rst and most important piece of software you need to download is, of course, the Android SDK. The Android SDK contains a debugger, libraries, an emulator, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Included in the SDK download are:
? The Android APIs: The core of the SDK is the Android API libraries that provide developer access to the Android stack.