A Developer’s Thoughts

One of the hottest topics in the technical world today is the Android Operating System (OS) created by Google.

Almost every major handheld vendor offers devices which leverage this Open Source OS. Depending on whose numbers you read, there will be over 280 million Android-based devices released this year alone.

And starting this Fall (2010) we’ll begin seeing tablet devices running Android as well. For the consumer, this means devices that are less expensive than Apple’s iPad, are more powerful, and will be able to view Flash content, which the iPad cannot do. [N.B. Apple has refused to put the Flash Player on its devices citing concerns that it is slow and drains device battery. Early indications are that this claim doesn't hold water - you can Google around for demos of Flash running quickly and efficiently on the latest Android-based devices. Here's a great video of Ben Forta, Adobe Platform Evangelist, playing with the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Tab.]

On the Technical Side
From this developer’s perspective, developing for Android devices is a pleasure, especially compared to developing for the iPhone or iPad.

First, you can use Java (used everywhere) to create native Android applications, rather than Apple’s archaic Objective-c (used nowhere). This means that most developers will feel right at home developing with the Android SDK using Eclipse (or whatever Java IDE they prefer). The only thing to learn is the SDK, but the programming is second nature. Beside my own personal experience, I know several developers who have had to learn Objective-c after using modern languages such as Java and ActionScript 3 and, to a person, they describe the experience as torturous.

Second, the Android SDK and developer tools are free, whereas you have to pay Apple for the honour of programming applications for their devices. Oh, and if you want to share your iPhone/iPad application with the world, you have to ask Apple’s permission. Good luck if you submit an application that is seen as a threat to Apple’s business model or Steve Jobs’ tight ethical code. Yes, really.

Third, Apple has decreed that the iPhone/iPad developer will use a Mac for all their development. No ifs ands or buts. On the Android side, the developer is free to use Windows, Mac or Linux. And to Google’s credit, they didn’t play favourites with the developer’s OS of choice. All the tools work equally well on all three platforms, even for us oft-ignored Linux developers.

Finally, there’s the Flash, Flex and AIR support offered by Android 2.2 and higher. These are Adobe’s related technologies all centred around the Flash Player (that Apple refuses to put on their devices). For existing Flash/Flex/AIR developers this is great news; they won’t even need to program in Java to leverage Android. They’ll continue to use the programming tools and languages they’re accustomed to and simply deploy them on these devices. Adobe has already announced enhancements to their tooling which will make this job even easier (I can’t talk about them but I’d recommend following the events at MAX in a couple of weeks;).

Business Demand
On the business side, we at NTG are seeing a lot of interest from customers wishing to port existing applications from desktop AIR to Android, as well as start new apps designed to run on mobile devices from the start. We’re currently creating applications for Android devices using both the Adobe AIR runtime for Android, as well as native (Java-based) applications.

Our only challenge right now is getting our hands on some of the newly announced tablets. Seems everyone from Dell to Motorola to Samsung is saying “real soon now” when it comes to releasing their latest devices. Hopefully the holiday season will inspire them to get something on the shelves. Of course, this isn’t stopping us from developing applications for these devices; the SDK provides emulators which give us a decent idea of how the applications will perform once deployed to physical hardware.

I Want to Learn More!
We’ve added two Android classes to our regular roster of hands-on training courses. Visit our Course Finder for more information.

Beyond the iPad Killer
So does Android spell the end of Apple’s reign over the mobile phone and tablet worlds? Not in the short-term. You can’t argue with success, and Apple has done a stellar job of convincing people that they’re in a different class by using their products. But by the sheer force of numbers around the world, Android’s foothold in the handheld and tablet spaces will only grow stronger.

As a developer, it’s great to see Apple and Google try to one-up each other. Notwithstanding RIM and Microsoft also vying for the spotlight, there’s some serious competition going on right now for the hearts and minds of consumers and developers. And if the competition leads to better development tools and cheaper devices, who am I to argue?