The recent announcement of Android L has made Android OS more competitive for Android app developers. Its extended features and development environment capabilities for smart wears as well as Android TV are giving some extra edges to the Android app development companies against other rivals.
Mobile operating systems are facing a transition time as the focus is gradually shifting from smartphones and tablets to smart wearable devices like smart watches and smart glasses. This time changes are not restricted up to the size or types of devices, but entire use-case concept is changing.
There are two main rivals fighting for their share in the market for the wearable devices with much advanced hardware and operating systems. Apple and Google are fighting with iOS and Android respectively. Today I am not in a mood to compare them, instead would like to share some positive ripples for Android L of Google and its effective arsenal for Android development community in form of Android Studio v0.8.
Android's Bet on PerformanceThe key of success in mobile app market places lies on the user experiences you offer and UX is anyway related to the performance metrics of OS and code of application. As far as coding practices are concerning, we, Android app developers can manage it anyhow, but OS is out of our reach. Therefore, right selection of OS is crucial for any
Android app development company.
Runtime MachineIn due course, Google has extended helping hands in its latest release of Android L OS by focusing on runtime machine and battery life of the devices. It has replaced older concepts of Dalvik app runtime with latest Android Runtime (ART in short). At technical point of view this new concept is same as older one, but creating differences in the performance of OS hence applications running on mobile and wearable devices.
Let's try to understand how it has changed the performance credentials using ART. In Dalvik runtime JIT (just-in-time) compiler was using the compiling Byte-code in to the Native-code on-the-fly each time your application is loading. This means your users would have some latency period each time they start applications. As from UX designing point of view it becomes negative point for users who have to wait for app load and increased battery consumption in bonus.
Against these, ART is using AOT (ahead-of-time) compiler that compiling Byte-code in to Native-code upfront during installations of applications and only for once. No doubt, this lengthens installation time, but reduces application latency during each loading. Therefore, time spent on installation is negligible against the frequent app loading latency.
Battery LifeIn other sense, this reduction in loading time of application resulting in to the lower battery and other resources consumption. Apart from these, there are other several fronts that can result into longer battery life if they managed smartly. In due course, Android L has battery life taker and automatic management system. Battery trackers tell users everything about your battery draining and suggests ways to reduce it.
Robust DesigningIntroduction of Material Design on Android L makes life easy for interface customization lovers for smartphones as well as other wearable devices. Material Design allows users to add shadows and seams on standstill as well as animated elements. Thus, it makes UI cloying and robust on interactions too. Moreover, introduction of revamped Roboto fonts makes reading easy and comfortable even on wearable devices too along with smartphones.