The Android platform continues to aggressively grow in market share against competing mobile platforms, such as Apple iOS and BlackBerry. Android's latest major platform update, Android 4.0, frequently called by its code-name, Ice Cream Sandwich or just ICS merges the smartphone-centric Android 2.3.x (Gingerbread) and the tablet-centric Android 3.x (Honeycomb) platform editions into a single SDK for all smart-devices, be they phones, tablets, televisions, or toasters.


This short e-book provides an overview from the authors on the importance of Ice Cream Sandwich as well as key preview content from the upcoming book, "Android Wireless Application Development, Third Edition, Volume I." This preview content provides some essential references, updated for Android SDK 4.0, for those interested in jumping into Android application development at this exciting time. To use this e-book most effectively, you need to download the Android development SDK and tools, install them on your development machine, and configure them using the development environment of your choice. You can find instructions for installing and configuring your computer for Android software development on the Android Developer website at http://d.android.com/sdk/