Final answer:
The Android platform's virtual machine was initially called Dalvik, which has been replaced by Android Runtime (ART) starting with Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Step-by-step explanation:
Dalvik served as the virtual machine for the Android platform until Android 4.4 KitKat, after which it was succeeded by Android Runtime (ART). Dalvik and ART allow Android apps, which are typically written in Java, to run on devices by translating the Java bytecode into native instructions that can be executed by the device's hardware.
Before Android 5.0 Lollipop, Dalvik was the primary virtual machine, using just-in-time (JIT) compilation to process the bytecode. With Android 5.0 and later, ART became the default runtime with an ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation approach, providing improved application performance and responsiveness.