Chapter    1

Welcome to Android

I would like to welcome you to this book, Beginning Android, 5th Edition. This is a new edition of the book, but I’m sure this is not the first time you have encountered Android—either by using one of the billion or more Android devices currently activated throughout the world, or by hearing about it from friends, colleagues, or the media. It is hard to escape Android; not only is it the world’s most prevalent mobile device operating system, but it keeps growing. Google reports that it sees more than one million Android devices activated every day.

If the growth doesn’t excite you, then the diversity of Android devices should. We all know Android was developed for phones, and later, for tablets. But did you know ...

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