IJCCET International Journal of Computer, Communication and Emerging Technology, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2011 www.IJCCET.

com

Android and Its Market Competitors

Krishan Kant Lavania#1, Devesh Ameta#2
1

k@lavania.in,2devesh.ameta1989@gmail.com

Abstract The paper is about android and its market competitors. Android-By definition, the word implies- "An automation that echoes homo sapiens". Android, a mobile operating system, developed by Android Inc., was brought into existence by Google in 2005. Android is extended specie of Linux Kernel. Android is a package of operating system, middleware, application software and a user interface. Android software stacks comprises of JAVA applications, running on object oriented framework on top of java libraries executing on DVK (Dalvik Virtual Machine), involving Just In Time (JIT) compilation. Android was announced by Google on September 2008 and by February 2011, Android market was fully made accessible onto the web, thereby allowing the end users to have access and develop applications on their desktops and then deploying them to their Android phone. Talking about its handset layouts, Android phones has capabilities of adapting to broader, 2D graphics and VGA libraries as well as copybook Smartphones design layouts involving basic featuresBluetooth, Wi-Fi, SMS, MMS, GSM/ EDGE etc. This paper describes Android features and a comparative study along with its present competitors in marketiphone(iOs), symbian, mobile windows etc. Keywords Android, iphones, Symbian, Windows, mobile etc.

Fig.1. A third party application (puzzle game) being designed on user PC through emulator.

Android has no distinguishing aspects between core phone applications and deployed third party applications. All applications have equal admittance providing user with broad speculation of applications and services. "Android inculcates Equal primacy to all applications" With Android Platform devices, users can even guide their phone to use their favorite media player while reading a media file. Android exponents the arena by removing all application frontiers. Example, a user can connect its personal data on phone with global data like news feeds, calendar, international time zone switchings etc. Android also features smooth and convenient development of applications by providing a full set of tools to have a deep insight into their applications. A. ANDROID VERSIONS

I.

INTRODUCTION

With ever evolving communication hub, present days' mobile gadgets have taken a chemise from single service towards a wide arena of services involving SMS, MMS, WiFi, games etc. High speed data transmission via technologies like 3G, 4G etc. have made it a mandatory statement of existence for any mobile gadget in today's market. Android phones go bang onto all the latest features streaming mobile email, internet browsing, mobile TV and many more innovations, into a small pocket. Android was built like a bare wall for anyone having access to write, that is, to develop and deploy third party applications onto the phones. For example developer can design any game and deploy it to its phone for entertainment purposes.

Numerous versions have been released from the date it got into existence. Generally these modifications were in terms of error removing and flooding newer applications. 1)Version 1.0/1.1: including features like extended screen timeouts while using speaker phones, marquee support for layout designs. 2)Version 1.5(Cupcake): Featuring direct uploads of pictures and videos from phone to internet to YouTube and Picasa respectively, Bluetooth connectivity etc. 3)Version 1.6(Donut): Specified on Linux Kernel 2.6.29, giving prominence to integrated camera, WVGA screen resolutions, modernized Voice Search options etc.

Manuscript received October 9, 2001. (Write the date on which you submitted your paper for review.) This work was supported in part by the ABC Department under Grant AB1234 (sponsor and financial support acknowledgment goes here). Paper titles should be written in uppercase and lowercase letters, not all uppercase. Full names of authors are preferred in the author field, but are not required. Put a space between authors initials. F. Author is with the ABC Institute, City, State PIN/ZIP Country (corresponding author to provide phone: 11-2222-5555; fax: 11-2222-5555; e-mail: author@ abc.com). S. Author, Jr., was with ABC University, City, State PIN/ZIP Country. He is now with the Department of XYZ, A University, City, State PIN/ZIP Country (e-mail: author@abc.com). T. Author is with the Computer Engineering Department, University of ABC, City, State PIN/ZIP Country, on leave from the XYZ Institute, City, State PIN/ZIP Country (e-mail: author@abc.in).

IJCCET International Journal of Computer, Communication and Emerging Technology, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2011 www.IJCCET.com

4)Version 2.0/2.1(Eclair): Introducing improvised hardware speed, enhanced Google Maps 3.1.2 and many more. 5)Version 2.2(Froyo): Alluring Adobe Flash 10.1 support, adding a 'disable' option for preventing data sharing over mobile networks etc. 6)Version 2.3 (Gingerbread): Inculcating synchronized Garbage Collection for better performance, featuring extra large screen sizes and resolutions, support for sensors like Barometers etc. 7)Version 3.0 ( Honeycomb): A latest one, released in January, 2011, citing changes like highly encored multi-tasking, audio-video chat using Google Talk, and many more. Other than these, Android Ice Cream version is all set to release around May, 2011. [11]

A.

LIBRARIES

Android contains a set of C/C++ libraries whose capabilities are under exposure to developers via Android application framework. Media libraries- supporting playback/ recording of several audio/video file formats including JPG, PNG, and MPEG4 etc. LibWebCore - web browser engine packaging an Android Browser. SQLite- it is a relational database engine for applications. B. THE MANIFEST FILE

The applications make declarations of their components in the manifest file that is stored into the Android package, that is, the .apk file, holding application's code, resources and files. AndroidManifest.xml is a structured manifest file, declaring application components and identifying permissions required by the applications to run. III. iPHONE ( iOS4)

II.

ANDROID PLATFORM AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

ANDROID VS

Android is a software stack for mobile applications containing operating system, middleware and key applications. Its SDK (Software Development Kit) provides APIs and necessary tools for developing applications on Android platform using JAVA language.[10] Android SDK comprises of libraries, sample codes, tutorials, a handset Emulator and debugger. Eclipse is the bona fide supported Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for developing the applications. The developed android applications are bundled into .apk format. APK package contains .dex (Dalvik executable) files which are complied byte code files by DVM which is optimized for minimal memory footprint. [12]

Talking about the present day Smartphones, there has been a visible transition in the amount of sales of "already established" giants like Apple towards the new comer, that is, the Android Smartphones. From its launch in 2007 through 2010, the iPhone has been a scoop shovel to AT&T (though will be available for Verizon soon), but with Android phones, user has his choice of any carrier.

Fig.3. Android overcoming Apple [1] Fig.2. A comparison between code compilation in normal JAVA environment and Android environment

Android's synchronizing of phone contacts and calendar to user's Google account is free, compared to iPhones MobileMes per year cost.

IJCCET International Journal of Computer, Communication and Emerging Technology, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2011 www.IJCCET.com

Compatibility - Easy compatibility in case of Android phones. For example, it is a matter of just drag and drop to copy and play a song from a computer to Android Smartphone, while in case of iOS 4, syncing with only one computer, that too having iPhone + iTunes model is quite a sort of reducing portability.[7]

Multi-tasking - iOS 4 and Android both provide multitasking feature, but with a slight difference. While Android's one is a desktop-style multitasking, means on switching to another application, the previous applications continue to run, which might put some overburden on battery's life. The iOS 4 has offered true multitasking to only Appleauthored applications. That means, unlike Android, iOS 4 doesn't provide equal primacy to the Apple-authored apps and third-party apps (the previous is prioritized more). Also, unlike iPhone, Android OS provides skinnable OS. Besides, Apple smart phones suffer some cons: Poorly designed Antenna placement for reception No Flash support available. Android, unlike Apple iOS, is open source, more developable, workable and ever growing, thereby delimiting the future scopes of refinement in Android grounds. Talking about market statistics, an NPD study showed that Android is leaving behind iPhone, with Q1 2010 unit sales of 27.77% against 20.91%.[8]

Fig.4. Fight of prestige [2]

IV.

ANDROID VS SYMBIAN

Latest release, Symbian 3, present in smart phones like Nokia N8 solves its several predecessors glitches, yet falls short from Android in terms of intuitiveness. [4] New Ovi Store has made access to numerous online applications easier, yet falls short when compared to iPhone and Android. Smartphones like Nokia N8, powered by Symbian 3, have not yet resolved issues regarding opening of large web pages on phone, while at the same time, Android has come u with open source Mozilla Firefox Browser providing a fast and endured browsing. [6]

Symbian is an open source mobile operating system and a software platform developed for Smartphones by Nokia. Present day scenario reveals a chaotic war between giants Google and Nokia to preserve their mark in the market. Once being a major market occupier, Symbian seems to be losing its grip. Mobile manufacturers today, in quest of searching an alternative to Apple and declining Microsoft, are greatly open towards Android. Google Android gives them a risk free and a consumer friendly brand. At one side, Google has been constantly dealing up with different mobile manufacturers at a sheer pace, Symbian still is holding up with Nokia.[4] A comparatively weaker User Interface (UI), source code, less intuitiveness speaks itself of the declining glory of this 'once renowned market dominant'. [4] Features like Wi-Fi Hotspot (supporting internet connection even when you do not have network connection on your phone) in Android distinguishes it from Symbian.

Fig.5. Percentage sales graph of Android, iPhone and Symbian.

IJCCET International Journal of Computer, Communication and Emerging Technology, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2011 www.IJCCET.com

V.

CONCLUSION

Viewing the present assets possessed by Google Android, it clearly seems to be proving a heavy hunk in front of its major rivals like Apple iPhones, Nokia Smartphones using Symbian, Windows mobiles and many more. Android's greatest strength lies in its software development kit, providing a 'never before' liberty and tools (like emulator to make development hardware independent) to the developer, where Apple substantially failed. Android certainly is a great dormant for shaping the future of mobile computing because customers want choice, that is what exactly given by Android. The openness of Android allows it to shape the future of mobile computing by making it available to any hardware manufacturer that wants to use it. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The preferred spelling of the word acknowledgment in American English is without an e after the g. Use the singular heading even if you have many acknowledgments. Avoid expressions such as One of us (S.A.) would like to thank ... . Instead, write F. Author thanks ... . Sponsor and financial support acknowledgments are placed in the unnumbered footnote on the first page, not here. REFERENCES
[1] http://www.webdesignguru.co.uk/icon/wpcontent/uploads/androideats-apple-nomnom.png. [2] http://www.newmobilemedia.com/android-vssymbian.htm [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian [4] http://www.pluggd.in/smartphone-comparison-symbian-vs-androidvs-windows-mobile-vs-blackberry-vs-iphone-297/ [5] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10398202-16.html [6] http://www.newmobilemedia.com/android-vs symbian.htm [7] http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/a-very-personal-google-android-vsapple-iphone-war-just-got-some-more-personality/31886? tag=rbxccnbzd1 [8] http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/05/10/android -demolishing-iphonein-sales/ [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system) [10] http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html [11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history [12] http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html

Krishan Kant Lavania born in the city of Taj Agra on 04th May 1978, completed his M.Tech. (Computer Science) from JNRV University, Udaipur, India, Ph.D. (Computer Science) from Canterbury University of Seychelles in the area of world wide web. After that he works as programmer at Real Choice Infotech, Kanpur as Programmer, then with Galgotia Institute of Management & Technology as Lecturer, then with Gyan Vihar School of Engineering & Technology as Reader, then after with Rajasthan College of Engineering for Women as Head of Department (Computer Engineering), presently he is working with Arya Institute of Engineering & Technology as Head of Department (Information Technology).He has published research papers in various international & national journals & conferences Prof. Lavania is the active member of various national and international organizations like, Indian Society for Technical Education, International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology, International Association of Engineers, Universal Association of Computer and Electronics Engineers and World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology. Prof. Lavania is also in the editorial board of International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE). Devesh Ameta born in the Udaipur, India on 31st May 1989. Presently he is pursuing his B.Tech. in Information Technology from Arya Institute of Engineering & Technology, Jaipur, India. He got his placement in Syntel.