A personal blog
Recently, we have heard that the Android operating system has the largest market share in the US, and is set to take over the whole world. Personally, I chose Android long before it was this popular. Why?
I won’t bore you with my personal history, but I’d like to say a few things. I’m a programmer and like to tweet things. If there isn’t an application that does the job, I write it myself. Couple years ago, I was given the then amazing iPhone 3G. I was thrilled. Everyone wanted one, and I had it.
I sold the iPhone, and bought a Motorola Droid. Why? It’s actually pretty simple. I don’t like closed systems. If you want to develop an application for the iPhone, you have to buy an Apple computer. You have to use XCode, the objective-C IDE. And only after your application gets approved, you can use it on your phone. I don’t like the idea of spending an upwards of $1,000 to get an underpowered machine just to be able to write an app.
After deciding, I wanted to get off the iPhone train, I started looking around for a new smartphone. The first choice was Blackberry. A serious Canadian company, business-class smartphones, good prices, … What’s not to like? Well, it turns out that you need Microsoft Windows in order to properly develop and test your Blackberry application. Being an avid Linux user, I very much disliked the idea of going back to Windows just because of Blackberry.
Android was my next choice. I browsed over to the developers’ website to see if I can make apps for this platform. When I saw that Windows, Mac OS and Linux were supported, I almost cried for joy! I learned that Android runs on the Linux kernel, apps are written in Java using the open source SDK.
Yes, Google is behind this whole thing. You may not exactly care unless you use their services. The integration of Google services into Android is phenomenal. When you first turn on your device, you are asked to enter your Google account information, and the device takes care of the rest. Your email, contacts, calendar, Google Talk, etc. are set up automatically. Genius.
This article was first published on November 2, 2010. As you can see, there are no comments. I invite you to email me with your comments, criticisms, and other suggestions. Even better, write your own article as a response. Blogging is awesome.