This document provides an overview of the Android platform, including:
- What Android is, its open source nature, and the players involved in its development like Google and the Open Handset Alliance.
- The different "flavors" or versions of the Android OS over time from 1.1 to 4.0 and beyond.
- How Android uses the Linux kernel and integrates key technologies like its Dalvik virtual machine, SQLite database, and support for media formats.
- The overall Android architecture with layers for the Linux kernel, libraries, application framework, and applications themselves which are written in Java.
- How the Android SDK helps developers build apps that get compiled to run on the Dalvik virtual