The first version of Android to showcase the real power of the platform, it also initiated the tradition of sugary-code Operating System names. Showcasing some significant updates, few of its key features were:- The first taste of on-screen keyboards as an alternative to physical ones. Android version history Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google. It is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. With early 2009's Android 1.5 Cupcake release, the tradition of Android version names was born. Cupcake introduced numerous refinements to the Android interface, including the first on-screen.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

From its inaugural release to today, Android has transformed visually, conceptually and functionally — time and time again. Google's mobile operating system may have started out scrappy, but holy moly, has it ever evolved.

Here's a fast-paced tour of Android version highlights from the platform's birth to present.

Android versions 1.0 to 1.1: The early days

Android made its official public debut in 2008 with Android 1.0 — a release so ancient it didn't even have a cute codename.

Things were pretty basic back then, but the software did include a suite of early Google apps like Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube, all of which were integrated into the operating system — a stark contrast to the more easily updatable standalone-app model employed today.

Android version 1.5: Cupcake

With early 2009's Android 1.5 Cupcake release, the tradition of Android version names was born. Cupcake introduced numerous refinements to the Android interface, including the first on-screen keyboard — something that'd be necessary as phones moved away from the once-ubiquitous physical keyboard model.

Cupcake also brought about the framework for third-party app widgets, which would quickly turn into one of Android's most distinguishing elements, and it provided the platform's first-ever option for video recording.

Android version 1.6: Donut

Android 1.6, Donut, rolled into the world in the fall of 2009. Donut filled in some important holes in Android's center, including the ability for the OS to operate on a variety of different screen sizes and resolutions — a factor that'd be critical in the years to come. It also added support for CDMA networks like Verizon, which would play a key role in Android's imminent explosion.

Android versions 2.0 to 2.1: Eclair

Keeping up the breakneck release pace of Android's early years, Android 2.0 Eclair, emerged just six weeks after Donut; its 'point-one' update, also called Eclair, came out a couple months later. Eclair was the first Android release to enter mainstream consciousness thanks to the original Motorola Droid phone and the massive Verizon-led marketing campaign surrounding it.

The release's most transformative element was the addition of voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic info — something previously unheard of (and still essentially unmatched) in the smartphone world. Navigation aside, Eclair brought live wallpapers to Android as well as the platform's first speech-to-text function. And it made waves for injecting the once-iOS-exclusive pinch-to-zoom capability into Android — a move often seen as the spark that ignited Apple's long-lasting 'thermonuclear war' against Google.

Android version 2.2: Froyo

Just four months after Android 2.1 arrived, Google served up Android 2.2, Froyo, which revolved largely around under-the-hood performance improvements.

Froyo did deliver some important front-facing features, though, including the addition of the now-standard dock at the bottom of the home screen as well as the first incarnation of Voice Actions, which allowed you to perform basic functions like getting directions and making notes by tapping an icon and then speaking a command.

Android Version History Ppt

Notably, Froyo also brought support for Flash to Android's web browser — an option that was significant both because of the widespread use of Flash at the time and because of Apple's adamant stance against supporting it on its own mobile devices. Apple would eventually win, of course, and Flash would become far less common. But back when it was still everywhere, being able to access the full web without any black holes was a genuine advantage only Android could offer.

Android version 2.3: Gingerbread

Android's first true visual identity started coming into focus with 2010's Gingerbread release. Bright green had long been the color of Android's robot mascot, and with Gingerbread, it became an integral part of the operating system's appearance. Black and green seeped all over the UI as Android started its slow march toward distinctive design.

Android 3.0 to 3.2: Honeycomb

2011's Honeycomb period was a weird time for Android. Android 3.0 came into the world as a tablet-only release to accompany the launch of the Motorola Xoom, and through the subsequent 3.1 and 3.2 updates, it remained a tablet-exclusive (and closed-source) entity.

Under the guidance of newly arrived design chief Matias Duarte, Honeycomb introduced a dramatically reimagined UI for Android. It had a space-like 'holographic' design that traded the platform's trademark green for blue and placed an emphasis on making the most of a tablet's screen space.

While the concept of a tablet-specific interface didn't last long, many of Honeycomb's ideas laid the groundwork for the Android we know today. The software was the first to use on-screen buttons for Android's main navigational commands; it marked the beginning of the end for the permanent overflow-menu button; and it introduced the concept of a card-like UI with its take on the Recent Apps list.

Android version 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich

With Honeycomb acting as the bridge from old to new, Ice Cream Sandwich — also released in 2011 — served as the platform's official entry into the era of modern design. The release refined the visual concepts introduced with Honeycomb and reunited tablets and phones with a single, unified UI vision.

ICS dropped much of Honeycomb's 'holographic' appearance but kept its use of blue as a system-wide highlight. And it carried over core system elements like on-screen buttons and a card-like appearance for app-switching.

Android 4.0 also made swiping a more integral method of getting around the operating system, with the then-revolutionary-feeling ability to swipe away things like notifications and recent apps. And it started the slow process of bringing a standardized design framework — known as 'Holo' — all throughout the OS and into Android's app ecosystem.

Android versions 4.1 to 4.3: Jelly Bean

Spread across three impactful Android versions, 2012 and 2013's Jelly Bean releases took ICS's fresh foundation and made meaningful strides in fine-tuning and building upon it. The releases added plenty of poise and polish into the operating system and went a long way in making Android more inviting for the average user.

Visuals aside, Jelly Bean brought about our first taste of Google Now — the spectacular predictive-intelligence utility that's sadly since devolved into a glorified news feed. It gave us expandable and interactive notifications, an expanded voice search system, and a more advanced system for displaying search results in general, with a focus on card-based results that attempted to answer questions directly.

Multiuser support also came into play, albeit on tablets only at this point, and an early version of Android's Quick Settings panel made its first appearance. Jelly Bean ushered in a heavily hyped system for placing widgets on your lock screen, too — one that, like so many Android features over the years, quietly disappeared a couple years later.

Android version 4.4: KitKat

Late-2013's KitKat release marked the end of Android's dark era, as the blacks of Gingerbread and the blues of Honeycomb finally made their way out of the operating system. Lighter backgrounds and more neutral highlights took their places, with a transparent status bar and white icons giving the OS a more contemporary appearance.

Android 4.4 also saw the first version of 'OK, Google' support — but in KitKat, the hands-free activation prompt worked only when your screen was already on and you were either at your home screen or inside the Google app.

The release was Google's first foray into claiming a full panel of the home screen for its services, too — at least, for users of its own Nexus phones and those who chose to download its first-ever standalone launcher.

Every Android fan might already have an idea that Google gives the names of the Android OS versions based on some delicacy, with the idea that every new version is a treat. There are quite a lot of new Android versions released till date, with the latest one now is the Android Jelly Bean OS, which came with the version number 4.1. The first one ever was Android 1.0 and the first beta ever released was in November 2007.

Check out the list below for the various major and minor Android updates and the different Android versions that were made available for the Android devices.

The first ever Android beta was available on November 5th, 2007 while the SDK with that had come on 12th November 2007.

Earliest Android SDKs that were released:

• 16 November 2007: m3-rc22a
• 14 December 2007: m3-rc37a
• 13 February 2008: m5-rc14
• 3 March 2008: m5-rc15
• 18 August 2008: 0.9
• 23 September 2008: 1.0-r1

The Version history based on the APIs

• Android 1.0 (API level 1)
• Android 1.1 (API level 2)
• Android 1.5 Cupcake (API level 3)
• Android 1.6 Donut (API level 4)
• Android 2.0 Eclair (API level 5)
• Android 2.0.1 Eclair (API level 6)
• Android 2.1 Eclair (API level 7)
• Android 2.2–2.2.3 Froyo (API level 8)
• Android 2.3–2.3.2 Gingerbread (API level 9)
• Android 2.3.3–2.3.7 Gingerbread (API level 10)
• Android 3.0 Honeycomb (API level 11)
• Android 3.1 Honeycomb (API level 12)
• Android 3.2 Honeycomb (API level 13)
• Android 4.0–4.0.2 Ice Cream Sandwich (API level 14)
• Android 4.0.3–4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich (API level 15)
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (API level 16)
• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (API level 17)
• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (API level 18)

And the new one that is going to come, is the Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.

Froyo – Android 2.2 to Android 2.2.3

This was one of the major updates that was made in the past, after the Froyo OS version, where there were updates made to the memory and performance optimization, and push notifications were enabled for CD2M messaging. Internet sharing was all possible from this version, where the USB tethering and the Wi-Fi Hotspot was made available. There was a support for the bluetooth enabled devices and cars, and the Android market (which was then not called the Play Store) was updated with the features for automatic and batch updating of the downloaded applications. For the first time, there was a support for the Adobe Flash player to view the flash content from the mobile devices.

Before Gingerbread, the devices were not of high resolution, and the Android 2.2 came with the support for the 4-inch 720p display resolutions. There were minor updates such as Android 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 all with a few bug fixes and performance improvements.

Gingerbread – Android 2.3 to Android 2.3.7

The Gingerbread version of the Android OS came in with a totally revamped home screen and the speed was made faster. The support was extended to even larger screens, and one of the very much needed features – Copy & Paste got much changes and betterment in this version. Some other noticeable changes that were made, included the support for Near Field Communication, a new Download Manager for the entire device, support for the front-facing camera if the manufacturer was providing that. The Google Nexus S was the device that came in with this major announcement, and the 2.3.1, 2.3.2 versions came in with a few bug fixes for this smartphone.

This OS version ran for long, with a total of 7 updates sent, till 2.3.7 where every time there were improvements and bug fixes done, one of the important ones being the fixing of the Bluetooth bug on the Samsung Galaxy S, and providing the Google Wallet support for the Nexus S 4G version.

HoneyComb – Android 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2

This was one version that came with a major support only for the tablet devices, with the Android tablets started picking up in the market at that time. The first ever Android tablet announced with this OS was the Motorola Xoom, and the features were as listed below:

• Added a System bar which gave a quick access to the notifications, settings, navigation buttons and all this was accessible easily from the right bottom corner of the screen.
• Added an Action bar which gave an access to the various apps, widgets and shortcuts and accessible from the right top corner.
• Multitasking with the recent apps appearing in the system bar and allowing the users to switch between these apps
• Redesigned keyboard for a better and easy typing in the larger screens
• A quick access to the camera features such as focus, flash, zoom, front-facing camera, time-lapse, and other camera features
• The two-pane Email UI for easier reading and accessing to the mails in the inbox

Later came in the various bugs fixes and improvements with the refinements to the user interface.

Ice Cream Sandwich – Android 4.0

The ICS version was first publicly released on October 19th 2011 where there were features pulled from the Android 3.0 for the smartphones. The change log would be totally huge, as Google, the maker of Android OS had decided to bring out the new OS versions only when there is a major overhaul of the features.

Jelly Bean – Android 4.1, 4.2

Android Os Versions

Then came in the Android Jelly Bean OS with a lot of overhaul, and we would be updating the article with several features that were worth mentioning.

KitKat – Android 4.4

With more than 1 billion android activations and growing, today Sundar Pichai announced that the next version of Android ie 4.4 would be officially called Kit Kat which is again something related to food.

Key Lime Pie – Android 5.0

Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is an all new Android OS which is in the making by Google and is slated for global release this May 2013 in Google IO event. Android 5.0 is slated to come with the Google Nexus 5 which as of now at least as per the rumours will be from LG Electronics. Though we don’t have the exact list of specs or features except the purported specs and features of NEXUS 5 which you can read the same in the corresponding link. After Jellybean 4.2 firmware, directly Android version will have a jump to Android 5.0 which is dubbed as Key Lime Pie. Also, it’s in the news that the reason for Google going slow is the patent infringements, it wants to doubly make sure that every new feature which is adopted is natural and is not inspired from available options in the market.

Key Lime Pie Android 5.0 OS will be looking to optimize the battery life which is a concern for most of the Android based smartphones and also it will address issues like frequent updates as Google is trying very hard to come something like Silent updates where in user won’t need to manually update the device. Also, FM Radio which still didn’t make in the NEXUS 4 might just get placed in the new Nexus 5 along with the LTE Capability which will be added in the NEXUS 5.

In terms of the OS features, it’s expected that the whole user interface will get a face lift and some new features will be added to compete with Direct Call, Smart Scroll etc. Also, the File explorer will be added in the new OS Android 5.0 which still didn’t make into the list of Android firmware. Adding to the list of deserts, this Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie will be a true successor of all other its former versions.

Google Babble which will be an interesting utility when it comes to unified messaging too will be added in this OS. To start with this firmware will be supporting all major and popular smartphones like Galaxy S4, Note 2, Xperia Z, HTC One and LG Nexus 4 but for other devices we need to wait for the confirmation from other handset manufacturers. There were speculations that SONY too is working for the making of nexus 5 smartphone, but there are no details as of now yet either from SONY or from Google. Google has announced the Google IO event in May 2013 which is between May 15 – 17.

There are also rumors that Motorola in association with Google is also working in the making of the Google X Phone by Motorola. With improved RAM usage, brighter interface, new Android PLAY Store which may be 4.0.16, better gesture keyboard, a dedicated Google Video Chat app, cross device sms sync, a never update option may be some of the features which Google will be adding into the list of Key Lime Pie.

We will be updating this article with full functionality features set below in coming days.

(Updated on 5 March, 2012 @ 22:05 by Pradeep Neela )

Rumors and Android seems to be an integral part now and fast pacing Android sees yet another big news which says that Android 6.0 will be called as “Key Lime Pie”. While Android 5.0 Jelly Bean is still yet to be launched, there’s good amount of time for Google to decide on this name for Android 6.0 as Key Lime Pie. This name comes on the similar lines of naming all the Android firmware versions on the Deserts. Till date Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, the current Ice Cream Sandwich has made up the list of firmwares for Android while Jelly Bean will be launched very soon and is expected to arrive in Fourth Quarter of 2012.

When we talk of numbers, these aren’t looking great from any angle. While Google is readying the roll out for Android 5.0, while the Gingerbread running devices constitutes around 60%, ICS just managed to roll out for 1% of Android devices which is a cause of concern. We can just hope that this changes quickly and Google adopts the policy which not just supports classes but also masses when it comes to the new firmware update roll outs. For all the detailed report on the market share of different Android versions, you can also refer to the below image. If you compare with other, the market share of Android had declined by 13%, while Apple’s iOS market share increased by 17% in Q4 compare to Q3, last year.

According to the various reports, 2012 is kept reserved for the launch of Jelly Bean Android 5.0 version while 2013 will mark the arrival of Key Lime Pie which is the probable Android 6.0 firmware version. It’s very unfortunate that older devices are not fully yet updated to the Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 versions despite hardware requirements meeting the criteria for the roll out. Though the blame game continues between the Google and device manufacturers, it’s only the users who fall prey to No Updates.

Though there is still no official confirmation on the same from Google Inc., we can only say that it’s better to play a wait and watch game as its still far to conclude whether this will be a probable name or not. Don’t forget to rope in your comments on the same or else just in case if you have any alternate name which you think should make it to name Android 6.0 other than Key Lime PIE. You can also alternatively tell us in the comments section just in case if you want any additional features in the Android 6.0 firmware version which will be dubbed as Key Lime PIE. While Blackberry and Windows platform is still growing up, Android is fast pacing the lot of mobile Platforms.

Google has many plans ahead, which users already find out, either through their press release or some leaks. But still, we could find out the names of their next Android operating system versions, that could possibly be the name of their version 3 generations later. And these can be called the weirdest names!?

• 1.5 version was called Cupcake.
• 1.6 version was called Donut.
• 2.0+ version was called Eclair
• 2.2 version is called Froyo, the one which is being released globally in most of the devices.

And the later versions are going to get the following names –
3.0 version – Gingerbread
3.5 version – Honeycomb

And now the news have arrived, that Google has named the very next versions’ name – Ice Cream, which is possibly the name of the 4.0 version. There is no news on the dates of the release of the 3.0 version and the later ones, but the names have already come in. If they take it every 6 months for a new version to be launched, Ice cream won’t come in before the mid-2011.