Android is an operating system created for mobile devices, for
example, smartphones and tablet computers. It is developed by
the Open Handset Alliance, which is led by Google. Google
purchased the company that initially developed the software,
Android Inc., on August 17, 2005. The unveiling of the Android
distribution on November 5, 2007 was announced with the founding
of the Open Handset Alliance - a consortium of 84 hardware,
software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing
open standards for mobile devices. Google released most of the
Android code under the Apache License, a free software license.
The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the
maintenance and further development of Android. The Android
kernel is based on the Linux kernel. In addition to the kernel
there are middleware, libraries and APIs written in C, and
application software running on an application framework that
includes Java-compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony.
Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine