Android is a mobile device platform which is powered by Linux kernel. Android is world’s most popular operating system. Android powered device was first launched in 2007 by HTC.
Over 70% of mobile developers develop android apps. They
develop applications for smart phones, tablets, camera’s, televisions etc.
What is Android
Application development?
Developing software for Android OS powered devices is Android application development.
Android Operating
system comes with different API’s and pre installed native applications like
phone manager, contacts manager, Calendar etc. Apart from these native
applications mobile user needs more features in smart phones. So, user made
application comes into play which utilizes resources of phone and computing
capabilities to come up with a solution to reduce human effort and to get best
out of a smart phone. User made application enhances the functionalities of
smart phone.
Start learning android application development tutorial from
KB4DEV.
·
Cupcake (1.5).
·
Doughnut (1.6).
·
Eclair (2.0).
·
Froyo (2.2).
·
Gingerbread (2.3).
·
Honeycomb (3.0).
·
Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0).
·
Jelly Bean (4.1).
·
KitKat (4.4).
Why Android application development is popular?
Over
65% of smart phone users have Android Powered Device. Around 150 million
devices are powered by Android OS. So there is huge need of android applications related to
different categories.
From where to learn Android Application
development tutorial
KB4DEV is a platform where you can read and edit notes written by
different users. They have comprehensive android tutorial series which covers
fundamentals of android as well as advance topics like interaction with remote
server using android. As notes can be updated by anyone who has account on
kb4dev so the study material remains authentic forever.
Android
is an open source platform provided by Google which comprises of:
·
Mobile Operating System.
·
Application development framework (set
of API’s).
·
Run time Environment.
·
Some application which are developed in
android operating system.
Framework:
Set
of classes and interfaces is known as API.
Set of API’s is called framework.
Runtime
environment:
Runtime environment contains resources needed to execute application.
Runtime environment contains resources needed to execute application.
Tools
needed
You
need IDE which stands for integrated development environment. You can use Android Studio or Eclipse as an IDE.
Programming
Language
Java is the
preferred language to develop android application. However if you are planning
to develop native applications you can use C/C++.
We use NDK which is native
development kit to develop application which has lower level access to android
architecture and system calls.
Some
steps to follow when you start learning Android for first time
1.
Start by learning basics of android operating system. You will learn to know how
android application works in an operating system.
2. Then learn about the IDE. Play with Eclipse
or Android studio and run simple
hello world application.
3.
Learn about project structure and
resources.
4.
Learn about Android manifest file.
5.
Learn to use Activity and Intents.
6.
Then proceed towards learning services and background threads.
7.
After that you need to learn about content providers in android.
After
learning list of basic topics given
above you can proceed towards advance topics like sensors, maps and Bluetooth etc.
You
can also develop applications which store their data online by consuming web services.