Android - What can I do retrieving the serial number of an Android phone?

Question

I'm learning Android development and yesterday I realised I could retrieve the serial number of the phone. But what can I do with that number? (in the everyday life). Thanks

Answer 1

You can get all the device information using:

android.os.Build.<OPTIONS>

e.g.

android.os.Build.SERIAL

Answer 2

This IMEI number can be use for unique purposes.you can use the IMEI number as unique number for different task.simple example using this number you can verify phone user.

Answer 3

IMEI is an unique identifier for any device. Please look up what IMEI si and what it could be used for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Station_Equipment_Identity

As far as my personal experience goes with how i use IMEI, i use it to uniquely locate and identify the device, let's say we have a middleware or server that needs to authenticate users, the design may be each user might have different profiles, like a single person may have one id used on different devices like a phone tablet phablet etc, IMEI could be really handy to uniquely id the variant of the user thus avoiding errors and what not