ANDROID OS

INTRODUCTION

1-Android is an operating system for mobile devices such as cellular

phones, tablet computers and netbooks. Android is developed by Google and
is based upon the Linux kernel and GNU software. It was initially developed by
Android Inc. (a firm later purchased by Google) and lately broadened to
the Open Handset Alliance.[4] 
Android has a large community of developers writing application programs
("apps") that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over
70,000 apps available for Android with some estimates saying 100,000 have
been submitted,[8] which makes it the second most popular mobile
development environment.[9] Developers write managed code in the Java
language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries.[10]
The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was announced
with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of
71hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open
standards for mobile devices.[11][12] Google released most of the Android code
under the Apache License, a free software and open source license.[13]
The Android operating system software stack consists of Java
applications running on a Java based object oriented application framework on
top ofJava core libraries running on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring JIT
compilation. Libraries written in C include the surface manager,
OpenCore[14] media framework, SQLite relational database management
system, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API, WebKit layout
engine, SGL graphics engine, SSL, andBionic libc. The Android operating
system consists of 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML, 2.8
million lines of C, 2.1 million lines ofJava, and 1.75 million lines of C++.[15]
2-Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating
system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools
and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform
using the Java programming language.
Android

OS BY GOOGLE
Company /devel Google Inc.,
oper Open Handset
Alliance

Programmed in C (core),[1] C++ (som
e third party
libraries), Java (UI)

Working state Current

Source model Free and open source

software

Initial release 21 October 2008

Latest stable 2.2 (Froyo) / 20 May

release 2010; 3 months ago[2]

Supported ARM, MIPS, Power
platforms Architecture,x86

Kernel type Monolithic (modified 
Linux kernel)
 Default user Graphical
interface

License Apache 2.0
and GPLv2[3]

FEATURES

 Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components

 Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
 Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
 Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics
based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
 SQLite for structured data storage
 Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4,
H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
 GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
 Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
 Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
 Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for
debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE
MAJOR COMPONENTS
APPLICATIONS
Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS
program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are
written using the Java programming language.
Libraries
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 PacketVideo's OpenCORE; 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
  LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android
browser and an embeddable web view
 SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine
 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
 FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering
 SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all
applications
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.
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.

Windows Mobile vs Google Android

Windows Mobile and Android are two smartphone operating systems that are
quite popular nowadays for very different reasons. Windows Mobile, from
Microsoft, is a very established operating system that has been around for a
considerable length of time. It’s a tried and tested operating systems that
people are quite familiar with and know how to operate. Google introduced
their operating system rather recently and as such, it is still in its infancy and
suffers from a lot of instability that is being addressed.
The most major difference between these two is in the licensing. Where
Windows Mobile is a proprietary software that hardware manufacturers need
to pay for, Android is open source software that uses Linux at its core. The
Android’s licensing also allows other entities to create software for Android
without releasing their own source, letting them keep their modifications within
their own line of phones. Google does sell some applications that come with
the OS, and it is the only way for them to make money out of it.
Because of the gap in maturity of the two, there is a wide margin in terms of
market share. Windows Mobile is installed in a wide array of phones from a lot
of manufacturers. Google’s Android operating system is only running on less
than 10 types of smartphones at the moment and is expected to improve to
fewer than 20 at the end of 2009. The same is also true when it comes to third
party software. There are a lot more software that can be bought for Windows
Mobile compared to Android.
Although, for the meantime, you can only get handsets that have a specific
operating system installed, there might come a time when you would be
allowed to choose which one you want with the model you like. Google’s
Android might be the underdog for now but there is a very real possibility that it
would become a contender. Especially when you consider the huge
community that are often formed around open source software.
Summary:

1. Android is based on Linux while Windows Mobile is based on Microsoft

Windows
2. Android is open source while Windows Mobile is not
3. Android has its own app market which current Windows Mobile devices lack
4. Android still has fewer applications than Windows Mobile
5. Android adapts Microsoft Exchange native to Windows Mobile
6. Android is still in development while Windows Mobile development has
virtually stopped