Android Development

Atomic Pineapple

Just thought I'd set up a thread to see if many other people are interested in Android development?

I done a location aware application for my 4th year Software Development course and found it to be very enjoyable to us as well as offering some powerful API's

I have since finished my course and graduated with a 2.1 (68%) average and due to my father passing away I lost track of what was happening in Android.

But now I want to get back into it and I'd love to see if many others are developing for Android?

anton

Well, Android is quite interesting though there are not too many Android devices on the market at the moment? I think I'll sit and watch how that plays out before jumping into that boat

Atomic Pineapple

anton wrote: »

Well, Android is quite interesting though there are not too many Android devices on the market at the moment? I think I'll sit and watch how that plays out before jumping into that boat

Very true, there is a pretty big list of Android devices out there however there limited in that there not available worldwide yet.

I doubt it will ever reach the heights of the iphone though

ilikerashers

Android is free, open source and hunting iphone fast. Pretty inevitable and I think worth reading up on if you're a developer. Iphone are first in and set standards, unfortunately free advertising driven applications always outdo their paid counterparts.

OP, have done a bit of android development, not done serious apps as only have been keeping an eye on the tech. Am curious though about what you think about the mobile web and if it's gonna sink the application development stores that seem to be generating quick revenue atm?

This comparison has been getting a lot of milage lately in my circles but if you look at the immature mobile market and compare it to early 90's computer market you can draw similarities.
- multiple hardware vendors
- multiple os
- alot of gimmicky applications floating about
Its set to explode when some standardization is introduced.

I reckon mobile web 2.0 (gotta love the buzz) will be first to launch cross platform, useful applications.

Oh and android 2.0 is out, screens online for those who are interested. And dell phone coming with android installed. Alot of big players gearing up, i could go on and on and on....

Atomic Pineapple

I agree completely with your comparison of the mobile market now and the desktop computer era of the early 90's.

I've only done the one Android app and research through college myself and found it very interesting, found it to be a great idea and a shame that the iPhone got there first. If it hadn't I think Android would be much better for the mobile marketplace.

The iPhone is were the money is at but I expect Android will be a success, on what scale I'm not so sure yet.

With hardware being created to handle much more fluid and interactive applications and websites instead of applications being squished to meet the small hardware requirements I suspect your correct with your prediction of the mobile web 2.0.

I believe then developers can concentrate on making great applications suited to and to take advantage of the difference in having a mobile device compared to a stationed desktop

smackyB

Hey, yeh I'm an android developer. I did a 3rd yr project in android and did another over the summer which is available on the marketplace under the name "Next Dart". Any feedback on it much appreciated. I does crash if you have GPS turned off, that'll be fixed in the 1.1 version!

As an Irish developer the main issue right now is that you can't sell paid apps in the Irish market at the moment. Until that changes, you won't see quality apps like on the iPhone.

thirtythirty

OP You're not the only person interested in developing for android!

Draffodix what do you mean by the "heights of iphone" - the number of handsets, or the number of development projects. Regarding handset numbers, android will probably outnumber iphone within 2years, purely because so many brands are releasing so many android handsets. As for development projects, im not so sure, but the iphone's app store has reached a saturation point whereby of the "100,000" apps available, only the top 1000 apps make it onto 3% of iphones, so there is already a huge amount of risk for developers regarding time vs reward.

In 6 years i would be extremely surprised if the iphone is held in such high regard as it is now. So many people have it already that it's a bit "meh" when someone says they got one. But produce a new phone with a new interesting UI like the hero, and people are immediately having a play with it.

Atomic Pineapple

spottyelephant wrote: »

OP You're not the only person interested in developing for android!

Draffodix what do you mean by the "heights of iphone" - the number of handsets, or the number of development projects. Regarding handset numbers, android will probably outnumber iphone within 2years, purely because so many brands are releasing so many android handsets. As for development projects, im not so sure, but the iphone's app store has reached a saturation point whereby of the "100,000" apps available, only the top 1000 apps make it onto 3% of iphones, so there is already a huge amount of risk for developers regarding time vs reward.

In 6 years i would be extremely surprised if the iphone is held in such high regard as it is now. So many people have it already that it's a bit "meh" when someone says they got one. But produce a new phone with a new interesting UI like the hero, and people are immediately having a play with it.

Yep I meant the number of handsets.

Completely agree on the projects though, although iphones controlling closed nature is very off putting to developers and with Androids openness it will definitely swing a bit.

I've never been into any of Apples products, I think there marketing campaign sells there products more so than the product itself.

JohnK

Got myself a Nexus recently so I'm looking at getting into some development for android. Havent even gotten as far as looking for any good resources yet but its on my todo list. At least I've got the sdk setup and ready locally though so thats something at least

Atomic Pineapple

nice, whats the nexus like?

skelliser

goin to have a go at this myself as well, gonna start small ie the helloworlds! cause i havent coded since college.

I fully expect android to take off this year.

Atomic Pineapple

skelliser wrote: »

goin to have a go at this myself as well, gonna start small ie the helloworlds! cause i havent coded since college.

I fully expect android to take off this year.

Good stuff its great to see Irish developers trying out Android

suspectdevice

genuinely, android needs some serious support from thje development community. all you can hire presently are symbiam programmers with a vague understanding of the android sdk. it has all the potential to be a great earner for those who provide development services for it. all the programmers that were going to do it seem to have caught the iPhone (mac lol) bug and android is seriously falling behind. granted the iPhone (mac lol) is a cool environment and developers really enjoy it, but it will fall down in the enterprise where wm7 will lead and android will be close behind

Atomic Pineapple

suspectdevice wrote: »

genuinely, android needs some serious support from thje development community. all you can hire presently are symbiam programmers with a vague understanding of the android sdk. it has all the potential to be a great earner for those who provide development services for it. all the programmers that were going to do it seem to have caught the iPhone (mac lol) bug and android is seriously falling behind. granted the iPhone (mac lol) is a cool environment and developers really enjoy it, but it will fall down in the enterprise where wm7 will lead and android will be close behind

Granted that Android is so new is it any suprise that developers that know Android inside out are a bit thin on the ground compared to Symbian which is ancient or iphone which has had a few years head start.

I dont see how anyone that "were going to" program for Android would have caught the iphone "bug", The iphone is a well established platform now and Android is only up and coming so its likely that developers from the Iphone are dipping into Android to see what its like not the other way around.

Windows mobile 7 to be the dominat force followed by Android and the iphone OS falling away? How did you form that opinion?

Any reports have suggested windows mobile 7 to struggle, with Android overtaking the iphone due to the sheer number of devices it will be available on but symbian remaining the leading platform.

Windows mobile 7 will need to be something really special to get people to go back to a windows powered device

suspectdevice

draffodx wrote: »

Granted that Android is so new is it any suprise that developers that know Android inside out are a bit thin on the ground compared to Symbian which is ancient or iphone which has had a few years head start.
I dont see how anyone that "were going to" program for Android would have caught the iphone "bug", The iphone is a well established platform now and Android is only up and coming so its likely that developers from the Iphone are dipping into Android to see what its like not the other way around.

lots of developers who were doing iPhone development saw android very much as a second platform to release their applications on. they found that they couldn't charge for android applications initially and so focussed on updating their iPhone apps further leaving the feature set on android behind. they caught the iPhone bug and up to now are neglecting their android apps. this may change going forward but just about anyone i have spoken to about android resources say "its something we are doing but our focus right now is iPhone"

draffodx wrote: »

Windows mobile 7 to be the dominat force followed by Android and the iphone OS falling away? How did you form that opinion?

i was talking about the enterprise. rim lead in the enterprise. rumour has that microsoft are going to buy them. that would leave the enterprise as a battle ground between microsoft and linux platforms such as android amd megoo. i can't see iphone making massive headway here. they are a niche product, not enterprise strength. in the consumer market it may different as we are dealing with fashion items and fickle consumers.

draffodx wrote: »

Any reports have suggested windows mobile 7 to struggle, with Android overtaking the iphone due to the sheer number of devices it will be available on but symbian remaining the leading platform.
Windows mobile 7 will need to be something really special to get people to go back to a windows powered device

microsoft are a sleeping giant in this space. their efforts over the remainder of this year will be telling.

Atomic Pineapple

Thanks for that second post, clears many things up from your first post and I have to agree with you.

Although, WinMo 7 doesn't appear to be have anything special so far, although Microsofts links to enterprise will probably keep it going.