Android is a mobile operating system for mobile devices such as the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Using the Android SDK (software development kit) you are able to develop applications that will run on the Android platform.

With Android development there is far more freedom compared to the iPhone platform because the developer has the ability to change or replace some of the core functionality.

Google’s Android SDK is capable of running on Windows, OS X & Linux with applications being developed in JAVA. The SDK provided by Android gives you all the tools required including the emulators.

There have been a number of version upgrades of Android with the most recent one occurring in September 2009 known as ‘Donut’. Android applications are packaged in .apk format and stored under /data/app folder on the OS. The user can run the command adb root to access the folder as only the root directory has permissions to access the folder.

The Google Android market app count has doubled in the last four months with even more applications due for release on the Android OS for Android hand held mobiles. Estimates predict that Android will become the worlds second most popular smartphone platform.

The Android market was announced on the 28^th August 2008 and was made live to users on 22^nd October 2008. By early 2009 there were 2,300 apps on the market and by the end of the year over 20,000.