•Free and Open Source
•Android is an open
source platform.
•Neither developers
nor handset manufacturers pay royalties or license fees to develop for the
platform.
•The underlying
operating system of Android is licensed under GNU General Public License
Version 2 (GPLv2), a strong “copyleft” license where any third-party improvements must
continue to fall under the open source licensing agreement terms.
•The Android framework
is distributed under the Apache Software License (ASL/Apache2),
•Which allows for the
distribution of both open- and closed-source derivations of the source code. •Commercial developers (handset
manufacturers especially) can choose to enhance the platform without having to
provide their improvements to the open source community.
•Developers
can profit from enhancements such as handset-specific improvements and
redistribute their work under whatever licensing they want. •Developers
can write open source
freeware or traditional licensed applications for profit and everything in
between.
•Familiar and
Inexpensive Development Tools
•Developer doesn’t
require registration fees
and expensive
compilers, there are no upfront costs of developing Android applications.
•Freely Available Software
Development Kit
•The Android SDK and
tools are freely available.
•Developers can
download the Android SDK from the Android website after agreeing to the terms
of the Android Software Development Kit License Agreement.
