Android is a Linux kernel based Software platform which has been primarily developed by Google and other member companies of Open Handset Alliance.It’s  mainly a Mobile OS that allows third party developers to write managed code in the Java language.

Since the announcement of Android in November 2007,a total of 48 hardware,software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices have joined Open Handset Alliance(OHA) to contribute towards Android and other such developments in their own possible ways.

Google has released most of the Android code under the Apache license,a free-software and open source license.

Android  SDK (Software Development Kit)being just a ‘beta level OS’ comes with the tools,APIs and instruction guide necessary to start developing applications on the Android platform using Java as the only programming language

Talking a little about Android’s background,one of the Google’s team led by Rubin developed a Linux-based mobile device OS which Google marketed to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible,upgradeable system.The idea was jointly appreciated by most of the hardware and software vendors that Google consulted and hence came into existance the Open Handset Alliance(OHA),which is led from the front by Google and partnered by all other member companies.

Since the launch of First Google Android powered smartphone called T-Mobile G1 aka HTC Dream and Android Market for allowing third party developers to work on Android platform for developing Java applications for the Open source Mobile OS,Android is gaining momentum like never before.

According to mobile industry analysts,older Mobile Operating Systems such as Symbian,Windows Mobile OS and others have been thoroughly overshadowed by very first version of Android and market response has also been overwhelming.

Inspite of the fact that T-Mobile G1 has not been launched at a global scale,the sales figures within US only are encouraging enough.One prime reason for it is the ‘Brand Google’ association with G1.

The latest news has brought even wider smiles to both the Android developer community as well the Consumers.We’re soon going to have another smartphone in the mobile market,which will be powered by Android Mobile OS.It’s HTC Magic aka Vodafone G2.