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Building Smart Phone Applications Using Google Android. An Introduction by Peter Messenger Senior Developer – Qmastor http://www.petermessenger.com. Why Learn Android?. Like to teach myself new technology Develop applications for my charity website http://www.physiotherapyexercises.com
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Building Smart Phone Applications Using Google Android An Introduction by Peter Messenger Senior Developer – Qmastor http://www.petermessenger.com
Why Learn Android? • Like to teach myself new technology • Develop applications for my charity website • http://www.physiotherapyexercises.com • Developed an Iphone version as experiment • Exceeded expectations, 100 downloads a day on average for last year, was in top 50 for medical apps – doubled website hits • Other platforms ASP.NET (web), Xbox/Windows (XNA), Silverlight (desktop), Internet TV (Samsung) • Heard about Android, wanted to see what it could be done
Google Android • Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google and is based on a modified version of the Linux kernal • Code is written in java, controlling device via Google developed java libraries • Unveiled in November 2007 • Free and open source licence
Google Android • Many different phones and devices now use the operating system • HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson • Tablets • Acer, Dell, Lenovo, Archos • Android’s market share in the US greater than IPhone • Still trailing IPhone in rest of world
Google Android • Includes Android Software Development Kit • Debugger • Libraries • Emulator • Sample Code and Tutorials http://developer.android.com/index.html
Google Android • Officially supported development environment is Eclipse (very similar functionality to Visual Studio) http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ • Uses Android Development Tools plugin for Eclipse
Google Android Marketplace • Currently 140,000 applications available • 1.7 billion downloads • http://www.androlib.com/appstats.aspx
Google Android Marketplace • Approximately 65% of marketplace are free • 86% are applications, 14% are games • Developers get 70% of any application sales (similar to IPhone) • Much less restricted model for distribution • Currently cannot sell applications in Australia (free is ok) http://www.android.com/market http://www.androidzoom.com/
My thoughts to date • Still very much a novice developer, developing the same application for IPhone and Android • Java is much easier to learn than objective C. • Eclipse is seems much easier to use than Apple development toolkit • Examples, code templates seems much easier to follow and are more complete • Seemed to be able to develop application in less than half the time
Links • Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system) • Android Market Statistics http://www.androlib.com/ • Android Developer Website http://developer.android.com/index.html • Android Marketplace http://www.android.com/market