History of android OS- Versions-Feature Description.Android is a Linux based mobile operating system developed by Google. It is a customized, economical and ready-made operating system.
The Current Market share of android is 76.6% in fourth quarter (According to Research Firm IDC) and it is increasing by leaps and bounds. So it has become the need of the hour for android developers to keep on updating android in order to cope with the competent market. So to achieve this objective the android has gone through many different phases time to time.
Note: User has nothing to do with API levels given below. It is for developer’s purpose only.
History of android OS- Versions-Feature Description
Let us discuss each android version in detail:
1) Android 1.5 – Cupcake(API level 3)- Features
- Release Date: 27 April 2009.
- Auto rotation option
- Copy & paste features
- Animated screen transitions
- Supports MPEG-4 &3GP format for Video recording
- Enables to upload video to YouTube
- Enables to upload video to Picasa
- Support for third party virtual keyboard
2) Android 1.6- Donut- (API level 3)– Features
- Release Date: 15 September 2009
- Gallery, Camera & Camcorder
- Quick Search Box
- Indicator for Battery Usage
- Google Play Updates
- VPN(Virtual Private Network), 802.1x
3) Android 2.0 Eclair (API level 4,5,6) – Features
- Release Date: 26 October 2009
- Bluetooth 2.1 support
- Optimized hardware speed
- New Camera features like colour effect, digital zoom, flash support.
- Improved Google maps
- Expanded account synchronization
- Improved virtual keyboard
Android 2.2-2.2.3 Froyo (API level 8) – Features
- Release Date: 20 May 2010
- USB Tethering
- Adobe flash support
- Wi-Fi hotspot functionality
- Support for alphanumeric and numeric password
- Separate option for disabling data access over mobile network
Android 2.3-2.3.2 Gingerbread (API level 9,10) – Features
- Release Date: 6 December 2010
- Faster virtual keyboard with improved accuracy
- Support for near field communication
- New Download Manager
- Improved user interface
- Improved Gmail app
- Improved camera features
- Efficient battery
- Google wallet support
Android 3.0 Honeycomb (API level 11,12,13)– Features
- Release Date: 22 February 2011
- Support for multi core processor
- Resigned keyboard
- New camera features
- Improved user interface
- Hardware acceleration
- Ability to encrypt all user data
- Home screen widget
- Support for joystick and gamepads
- FLAC Audio support
Android 4.0-4.0.2 Ice Cream Sandwich( API level 14,15) – Features
- Release Date: 18 October 2011
- In-built photo editor
- Ability to access apps directly from lock screen
- Pinch zoom feature in calendar
- Wi-Fi Direct
- New gallery layout
- WebP image format support
- Face Unlock
- QVGA resolution
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (API level 16,17,18) – Features
- Release Date: 9 July 2012
- Improved Camera app
- Improved user interface
- Bi-directional text support
- Audio chaining
- User installable keyboard maps
- Group messaging
- Security enhancements
- Right to left language support
- 4K reolution support
Android 4.4 KitKat (API level 19,20) – Features
- Release Date: 31 October 2013
- Wireless printing capabilities
- Improved Dialler app interface
- Security enhancements
- Auto focus improvements
- Loudness enhancer
- Audio monitoring
- GPS support
- Offline music playback
Android 5.0-5.0.2 Lollipop (API level 21) – Features
- Release Date : 12 November 2014
- Print preview support
- Improved screen lock features
- Guest login Support
- 64-bit CPU support
- Audio input & output via USB devices
- 15 new language support
- Improved battery life
Other devices that android supports are:
- TV
- Tablets
- Wear (watches)
- Auto (coming soon)
Famous Companies that uses android:
- hTC
- acer
- LG
- ASUS
- HUAWEI
- MOTOROLA
- SAMSUNG
- ZTE
- SONY and many more.
I hope this article will help you explore android and keep in touch with us for future updates of android.