CUPCAKE TO NOUGAT; THE OPEN SOURCE STORY

Introduction
Technology is in a constant state of evolution as new state of the art innovations are rolled out every quarter by tech giants. One of the most remarkable success story in the history of tech is the advent of the android operating system (OS).
Android, as an OS, came to life on the 5th of November, 2007. 10 years later, it has grown to be a giant in the world of operating systems. However, this did not just happen. Some crucial twists and turns propelled the budding industry to its present state.
Walking through the alphabetical and sweet-naming journey of androids (Yes, the names are actually alphabetical, not just chosen at random!), there are changes worthy of note.
Some of them are:
Cupcake (1.5): support for 3rd party virtual keyboards (The beginning of the end for blackberry)
Donut (1.6): Text to speech capabilities
Eclair (2.0): Live wallpapers; camera optimisations
Froyo (2.2): Speed enhancements
Gingerbread (2.3): Design improvements; support for NFC
Honeycomb (3.0): Focused on tablets
Ice cream sandwich (4.0): Complete removal of hardware buttons
Jellybean (4.1): Introduction of “google now”
Kitkat (4.4): Less running memory
Lollipop (5.0): Material design user interface
Mashmallow (6.0): Fingerprint sensor support
Nougat (7.0): Multiwindow support.
And gradually, the giant arose.

Open source: the secret of android’s success story
Every innovation that “pulls through” has some tenets to which the success can be attributed to. Wisdom Odoki, a member of “Android city”, a Nigerian based tech group has this to say about the success story of Android as an operating system: “The google source code for android was readily available for developers to synchronise to their GIT repositories, allowing communities to contribute to the development via custom roms, facilitating much more improvements and additional features to be implemented.”
With the access provided by the “root” feature in androids, Cyanogen mod (now lineage OS) was at the forefront of rolling out custom roms with striking features that were unavailable in the stock android version. Some of these features are, at the moment, now implemented in stock androids, as their functionality is greatly desired.
This directly reiterates the limitless possibilities associated with working in a community, a group of people with similar interests. Stephen Covey wrote, “A child that is born starts from a dependent stage, when he relies on people for everything. Gradually he gets to the independent stage, when he relies on himself more. But the apex of growth is the interdependent stage, when he realizes that greater achievements are made when he works with others, as a team.”
It is recommended to align with individuals whose interests are concomitant with your short and long term goals. This gives an aura of positivity that silently propels you towards those things that give you “value”.

Adaptation and flexibility: The nokia mistake
Nokia, the company that envisioned gaming on mobile devices with the legendary “snake game” was at the forefront of the mobile industry for years, transcending from java OS to symbian OS with notable devices like the asha, E-series and N-series. This position encountered stiff rivalry with the advent of the android OS.
The “rampaging” popularity of the android operating system abruptly phased out the symbian OS while competing tremendously with the iOS. However, the Nokia group was resistant to this change making moves like the launch of the Meego OS which was discontinued in 2011 in favour of the Tizen OS. This delayed response to the android phase of mobile development culminated into the sale of the mobile giant to microsoft in September, 2013. 4 years, later, January 2017, Nokia has finally announced the launch of its android phones, “Nokia 6” being the first Nokia android smart phone.
Adaptation is an essential feature for survival. Even the human body in its homeostatic glory has the ability to adapt to changing environmental stresses in a dynamic manner. Famous scientist, Charles Darwin says: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Flexibility, while maintaining core values is hence, essential for positive growth.

Androids and finances
With the economy in a “virtual” state of crises, financial intelligence is almost as essential as finances itself. A popular proverb says, “a fool and his money are soon parted”. Sirin labs, an israeli startup launched the world's most expensive smartphone, the Solarin, last year. This phone is worth about $14,000, that is about 4.4 million naira. Some people can purchase this device without blinking. In fact, some Nigerian celebrities with “30 billion in their accounts”, spend more than this in a nightclub in one night on just drinks. But not everyone has to have a high end smartphone.
The fact that an individual has friends with a flair for samsung flagships like the S8 or the note 7, or for Sony flagships like the Xperia XZ with prices far above 200,000 naira, an amount more than the price of 20 online courses on Udemy, does not mean that individual should also go to extremes in order to join the smartphone “gang”. Phones, just like every other purchase, should be done in concomitance with income and necessity. The main features common to all phones are the ability to make calls and send messages. Other features are not a complete necessity but can be acquired based on preference. If Mene is a guy staying in Sahara desert, what would he be doing with a waterproof phone?
In essence, finances and usability must be considered in purchase of android phones, especially in a society where, as popular LIB reader, Onyx Godwin noted, your worth can be accessed by the phone you use, a very wrong perception. Hence, for the sake of self esteem, scattered across the country and young men and women, slay queens and kings, using devices of over 200,000 naira without money to eat and in fact, money for something as basic as a data subscription. Be financially intelligent, even as regards androids.

Androids and productivity
Social applications like Whatsapp, Snapchat, BBM, instagram, facebook, twitter and games like fifa 17, PES 16, grand theft, modern combat, subway surf and the legendary candy crush are all very wonderful. But, if you’ve had these applications on your phone for more than 4 months and they have not contributed something positive to your life in any way, it is time to start thinking about your life and get applications that are more productive. Personally, I am not in the school of thought that any application is bad. Having an instagram account with thousands of “followers” is one of the essentials of celebrities. A popular comedian, “crazeclown” is presently a brand ambassador of Nairabet. A former medical student at the Kharkiv National Medical University, Ukraine, Crazeclown came into spotlight and has,without doubt, made millions using the same instagram and youtube.
However, there are some applications that may be of interest as regards productivity.
Microsoft office suite: This includes Microsoft word, powerpoint, onenote, excel, etc. These are essential office apps with android versions readily available.
Airdroid: This is an application that enables you read and send texts, view call logs, browse through device storage and wirelessly transfer files between android device and PC.
Google keep: This allows you save virtually anything online and offline, ranging from notes, voice memos, transcriptions, pictures, etc. As the name implies, you can just “keep” it there.
Expensify: This is a money manager, allowing you keep track of expenses and income. It has several interesting features including ability to scan receipts and extract info.
Google translate: Think international. You may need to translate some statement or information at any time. This app comes in handy.
Tasker: This app takes automation to a whole new level, giving the ability to turn on bluetooth, wifi or trigger alarms at predetermined times or at preset locations.
Adobe acrobat reader: Portable document format (PDF) is one of the most common document format currently existing. Adobe acrobat provides a seamless ability to read documents and make edits. A more versatile and equally awesome reader is “moon reader” with provision for ePUB files.
The list is limitless, with apps like picsart, photoshop and autoCAD for graphic designers; blockchain, xapo, coinomi, etc for cryptocurrency users; medscape for medically inclined individuals; medium, TED for quality articles and goodreads; limitless it is. For the sake of personal development, search and download at least 4 applications that can actually affect your life positively. Use your android, don’t let it use you.

Conclusion
The growth story of androids present various teachable lessons for startups and individuals. Many android devices are presently scattered across the globe with features that, 17 years before now, could be unimaginable. The latest from Samsung, the S8, has an embedded Iris scanner, a feature that lets you unlock a phone just by looking at it with the “right eyes”. This is an advancement to the fingerprint scanner with gives the capability to unlock a phone just by touching it with the right hands, or the voice recognition that lets users speak words of unlock to a device and it unlocks. Cameras have been improved to almost pure view levels, with categories of led flash that makes night pictures seem heavenly.
How far androids would go is a question that can be easily answered, but at the moment, the end of androids is nowhere in sight. From cupcake to Nougat, the open source story of Androids has been quite adventurous.

Fii Stephen Michael.