Introducing the Android Computing Platform

Abstract

Personal computing continues to become more “personal” in that computers are becoming increasingly accessible anytime, anywhere. At the forefront of this advancement are handheld devices that are transforming into computing platforms. Mobile phones are no longer just for talking—they have been capable of carrying data and video for some time. More significantly, the mobile device is now becoming so capable of general-purpose computing that it’s destined to become the next PC. It is also anticipated that a number of manufacturers such as ASUS, HP, and Dell will be producing netbooks based on the Android OS. So the battle lines of operating systems, computing platforms, programming languages, and development frameworks are being shifted and reapplied to mobile devices.