Whether you’re an experienced mobile engineer or web developer or a total novice to full programming, Android offers an exciting opportunity to create apps for an audience of over two billion Android device owners. You are probably already familiar with the Android operating system, which is the most popular mobile phone software. You might want to reconsider purchasing this book if you’re expecting that the development of Android would enable you to build an unbeatable army of cruel robot warriors on a never-ending quest to cleanse the world of mankind’s disease and your lifestyle choices. This is especially critical in the case of Android application development.

Since then, the Android platform has grown to support an increasing variety of hardware types, including tablets, televisions (including smart watches), cars, and internet-connected gadgets (such as laptops and desktop computers).

Android Has Reached Its Zenith

The Android App Development software stack consists of an operating system, middle ware, and key apps for mobile and embedded devices. It is completely free and open source software.

• Perhaps most significantly for us as developers, it also includes a rich set of API libraries that enable us to create apps that can modify the appearance and functionality of the Android devices on which they operate.
• Android’s system, bundled, and third-party applications all share the same APIs and run concurrently. Developers may use APIs for hardware access, video recording, location services, and support for background services, maps, alarms, sensors, relational databases, inter-application communication, Bluetooth, NFC, and 2D and 3D graphics.

This book explains how to use these APIs to develop your own Android applications. This chapter will discuss some guidelines for developing mobile and integrated hardware, as well as certain platform features that are available to Android developers.

Conclusion

Android has robust APIs, a huge and diverse user base, excellent documentation, and a thriving developer community, all without incurring development or distribution costs. Android is a completely free operating system to use and distribute. Due to the continuing growth of the Android device ecosystem, you now have the opportunity to build cutting-edge consumer applications regardless of your prior programming experience.