Datasheet

Why Develop for Mobile?
❘
9
update or restart in the background if necessary, is an important consideration in an environment that
does not allow applications to control their own lifetimes.
You will learn more about the Android application life cycle in Chapter 3.
INTRODUCING THE OPEN HANDSET ALLIANCE
The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a collection of more than 50 technology companies, including
hardware manufacturers, mobile carriers, and software developers. Of particular note are the promi-
nent mobile technology companies Motorola, HTC, T-Mobile, and Qualcomm. In their own words,
the OHA represents the following:
A commitment to openness, a shared vision for the future, and concrete plans to
make the vision a reality. To accelerate innovation in mobile and offer
consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. (
http://www
.openhandsetalliance.com/
)
The OHA hopes to deliver a better mobile software experience for consumers by providing the plat-
form needed for innovative mobile development at a faster rate and with higher quality than existing
platforms, without licensing fees for either software developers or handset manufacturers.
WHAT DOES ANDROID RUN ON?
The first Android mobile handset, the T-Mobile G1, was released in the United States in October 2008.
By the end of 2009 over 20 Android-compatible handsets had been launched or announced in more
than 26 countries on 32 different carrier networks.
Rather than being a mobile OS created for a single hardware implementation, Android is designed to
support a large variety of hardware platforms, from WVGA phones with hard keyboards to QVGA
devices with resistive touchscreens.
Beyond that, with no licensing fees or proprietary software, the cost to handset manufacturers for pro-
viding Android handsets, and potentially other Android-powered devices, is comparatively low. Many
people now expect that the advantages of Android as a platform for creating powerful applications will
encourage device manufacturers to produce increasingly tailored hardware.
WHY DEVELOP FOR MOBILE?
In market terms, the emergence of modern mobile smartphones and superphones — multifunction
devices including a phone but featuring a full-featured web browser, cameras, media players, Wi-Fi,
and location-based services — has fundamentally changed the way people interact with their mobile
devices and access the Internet. Mobile-phone ownership easily surpasses computer ownership in many
countries; 2009 marked the year that more people accessed the Internet for the first time from a mobile
phone rather than a PC.