References

Costa, D. (2011). Android Fragmentation: FUD and Facts. PC Magazine, 30(5), 1. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Last accessed October 3rd, 2011. I chose to use this source because of the large amount of information on Android fragmentation. The source is credible due to the size and reputation of the publisher.

Heller, M. (2010, August 18). Android's Oracle Lawsuit: A Pandora's box of serious evils. Posted to http://www.infoworld.com/t/intellectual-property/oracles-android-lawsuit- pandoras-box-serious-evils-359?page=0,0 Last accessed October 3rd, 2011. I chose this source because it had a lot of information on the legal/ethical issues involving Android. It is credible because it is published by IDG, a global publishing company that produces many respected magazines.

Kirsner, S. (2007, September 2). Introducing the Google Phone. Posted to http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/02/ introducing_the_google_phone/ Last accessed October 3rd, 2011. This site is credible because it is the website of The Boston Globe newspaper.

Naughton, E. J. (2011). The Bionic Library: Did Google Work Around the GPL?. Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, 23(7), 3-8. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Last accessed October 3rd, 2011. This source is credible because it was found in a peer reviewed journal and the author has litigated a large quantity of patent and copyright cases.

Reed, B. (2010). How Android conquered the mobile world. Network World, 27(21), 12-20. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Last accessed October 3rd, 2011. I chose to use this article because it contained some information about the history of Android and how it had become so popular. I believe the source is credible because the publication Network World is well respected within the IT field.

Conclusion

Android, like many things, has its ups and downs. It's freedom of customization, open-sourced code, and its cost have made it the second most popular smartphone OS in the world. Unfortunately OS fragmentation and copyright/patent lawsuits threaten to derail Android as it tries to become number 1. With luck, Android's soon-to-be newest version, Ice Cream Sandwich, can help stave off or eliminate many concerns about the platform. Despite its various issues, good things should be on the horizon for Google's little Android.

Further Research

As we look into Android's future, one of the biggest problems it has is fragmentation. This is defined as having multiple versions of the operating system running on an even large number of different devices (Costa, 2011). This is a major issue for developers because they have to choose between making the best application possible and losing users running earlier versions of Android that are incompatible, or making mediocre applications that are compatible with every version of Android (Costa, 2011). Adding to this is the fact that Android has Honeycomb which is strictly for tablets and fragments the platform even further. Google is in the process of developing a solution. The next version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, is being developed to bring as many devices together as possible. It will be an amalgamation of both Honeycomb (version 3.0) and Gingerbread (version 2.3). Also, Google is going to great lengths to ensure that even lower end devices will have enough horsepower to run it. This is Google's best chance at solving the fragmentation issue before it gets out of hand.

Some of the Security Concerns with Android

Every operating system faces security holes and Android is no exception. Currently, Android is having an increasing issue with viruses and anonymous data collection. The Android Market, one of a number of places for Android user to find applications, has seen a number of apps get labeled as viruses. Google is trying to come up with a solution to the virus issue while still allowing the Android Market to be a place where anyone can develop an app and sell it. The other major security problem stems from Android's built-in ability to record and save various types of information about your phone or tablet. Among the types of information are your phone number, where you are accessing various features on your device based on the network you are connected to, where you are based on places where you actively use the device's GPS radios, and the device's IMEI number (a number that is unique to each device and allows the cellular carrier to identify it). The problem is that it is not made transparent to the user exactly what information is being saved, it is not easy for the average user to stop this from happening, and the information is not stored securely. Google is currently working with device manufacturers to resolve this issue.

Some of the Legal and Ethical Issues Surrounding Android

Android's life has not been without its trials and tribulations. Two major issues have cropped up in its first four years: copyright/patent infringement and questions as to how open the Android platform really is. One of the major components of the Android OS is its use of the Dalvik virtual machine to process Java code. The problem is that Java itself uses a remarkably similar virtual machine within itself. Oracle Inc. owns Sun Microsystems, the creators of Java, and is suing Google for copyright and patent infringement. Oracle alleges that Google used code copied directly from Java's virtual machine in their Dalvik virtual machine. Google has denied this, stating that they actually reverse-engineered Java's virtual machine in order to formulate the Dalvik virtual machine (Heller, 2010). As to whether Google can beat out the copyright charge, InfoWorld's Martin Heller writes,

"I think that is likely to be dismissed early in the proceedings, if the Android team did (as reported) a clean-room reverse-engineering of the Java virtual machine to create the Dalvik VM underlying Android -- and can offer proof. Phoenix Technologies managed that trick with the IBM PC BIOS, so it's quite possible that Google did as well with Java." (2010)

There are also seven patent infringement charges coupled with this copyright lawsuit. According to Heller, these charges will be much harder to beat as they deal with software processes and are extremely vague in their wording (2010). The other major issue is more ethical in nature. Many question whether Android is truly an open-source platform. Although much has been said about the fact that Google has not openly released the source code for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), it is small potatoes compared to the possibility that Google willing skirted around, and possibly infringed on, the GPLv2 (General Public License version 2) that the Linux kernel used in Android was released under. Essentially, the kernel uses a library of C classes called glibc which is also licensed under GPLv2 and any program which uses those classes when compiled would legally be bound by the terms of the GPLv2 license (Naughton, 2011). Google wanted to avoid this because the developer of an Android app would be required to make the source code openly available to anyone, even competitors. So Google decided to make their own C library called Bionic, using the header files from version 2.6 of the Linux kernel (Naughton, 2011). Although these header files were licensed under GPLv2, Google invented an algorithm to get rid of all whitespace and comments within the code, as these could be considered creative thought and thus subject to copyright (Naughton, 2011). What was left was simply declarations and macros, which Google deemed could not be considered infringement. They then used these cleaned up header files to construct their Bionic C library. The problem is that many, including the court system, consider these files to be creative if they contain code which creatively solves a problem (Naughton, 2011). As of July, 2011 no has called Google out on this in court but the possibility is still there and a lawsuit over this would affect every single person or thing connected to Android. It might even see Android pulled off the market until the infringing portions of code are fixed or replaced. It would conceivably be a mortal blow to Android's future.