The Android SDK: a primary development environment

Mar 19, 2015SHORE Blog

In 2014, there were over a billion Android users in the world according to Google. That huge number shows the dominance of the mobile operating system (OS) developed by Google. Not only do Android devices sell more than the combined iOS, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X devices, but as of mid-2013, the Google Play store had published over one million Android applications (apps). In addition, over 50 billion apps had been downloaded. By now, the number of downloaded apps must have increased by a few more billions. Because of these huge numbers, the Android SDK is likewise very much in demand. Android SDK stands for Android software development kit.

Google is also the developer of the Android SDK, which is a cross-platform, Java-based development tool. From the term itself, the Android SDK is defined as an environment by which developers can create new applications for the Android OS. The Android SDK encompasses a complete suite of development tools such as libraries, a debugger, sample code, a handset emulator based on QEMU (or Quick Emulator which is an open-source hosted hypervisor that does hardware virtualization), documentation and tutorials. The Android SDK can be used on computers that run Linux, Windows XP or later releases, and Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later versions.

Whenever the Android SDK is enhanced with new releases, developers know that the overall Android platform is correspondingly being enhanced. The advantage of the Android SDK is that it continues to support older versions even after the launch of newer versions. This is so that developers can make applications for older devices since millions of people tend to keep their mobile devices even with the introduction of newer models with a wider range of features. As with the process of regular application development, using the Android SDK involves many steps: app design, creation, building a user interface, testing (including compatibility testing), debugging, and many other processes.