The version history of Android OS began on 21 October 2008. The mobile operating system, developed by the Open Handset Alliance and primarily Google, has seen 5 major revisions with the most recent (v2.2 entitled Froyo) released on 20 May 2010.
The issue of fragmentation has been seen as a major problem with the Android system;[citation needed] there are currently 4 major versions on the market. This is often attributed to the modifications made by the manufacturers, including suites such as HTC Sense and Motoblur.
The next version of Android- v3.0- is to be called Gingerbread, and expected to be released late 2010.[citation needed]
Development History edit
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version 1.0 edit
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version 1.1 edit
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Version 1.5 (Cupcake) edit
Version 1.5 was released on 30 April 2009. It was released on many of the popular first generation Android phones such as the HTC Hero. It included refinements and improvements including:
- Ability to watch and record videos
- Youtube video and Picasa photo uploading
- Widgets and Live Folders on the home screen
- New soft-keyboard with text prediction
- Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP support
- Animated screen transitions
Version 1.5 is based on Linux kernel 2.6.27.
Version 1.6 (Donut) edit
Version 1.6 was released on 15 September 2009, and was included by default on the Motorola CLIQ and HTC Tatoo. It's main features were:
- Refreshed Market App
- Integration of the Camera, Camcorder and Gallery apps
- Global search searches bookmarks, history, contacts and the internet
- Updated voice search abilities, including voice dial.
- WVGA screen support
- Gesture framework in SDK
Version 2.0/2.1 (Eclair) edit
The version 2.0 SDK was released to developers on 26 October 2009. It was notable in being included on the Motorola Droid/Milestone and Nexus One phones, two major Android products, and introducing major changes including:
- Speed increases
- Support for more resolutions[which?]
- Improved UI
- New browser UI and HTML5 support
- New contact lists
- New 3D Gallery app
- Updated Google Maps app
- Microsoft Exchange support
- Support for camera flashes and digital zoom
- Bluetooth 2.1 support
Version 2.1 was introduced on 12 January 2010 and included small improvements such as Live Wallpapers.
Version 2.2 (Froyo) edit
The most recent version of Android, Froyo, was introduced at the Google I/O conference on 20 May 2010. This version introduced:
- JIT compiler resulting in large speed increases
- Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 for ARMv7 devices
- Improved Exchange support, including Calendar synchronisation, auto-discovery, security policies and remote wipe abilities
- Integration of Chrome's V8 Javascript Engine
- Improved application launcher
- USB tethering and Wi-Fi hospot functionality
- Updated Market app with batch update and automatic updates