All that is gold doesn’t necessarily have to glitter. Android has been touted as being one of the next big platforms that would knock iPhone of its throne. However, this doesn’t seem to be the situation for Android. The ultimate problem that the platform is currently facing is the number of versions of software on phones. With a whole slew of releases available for the Android platform, many apps are not necessarily backward or forward compatible with the operating system. Add to this the various vendors providing different phones with numerous variations of hardware components means that most developers have nightmares developing code for each individual phone rather than a universal app.

The problem inherently in this situation is that cross-platform independence regardless of hardware is an ideal utopia that developers want but can never get. Similar to the BlackBerry situation where porting apps from other platforms is a nightmare, it can happen but not without a significant fight.

From a smaller developer viewpoint, Android is a difficult platform to work on. The amount of resources and time needed to code for a single application is significant for a small business; the need to re-code for various hardware and software versions is not conducive to building a customer base. Not only do variations in hardware and software affect the overall compatibility of the app, it reflects poorly on the build quality of the app. As a result, customers are naturally wary of the platform when they experience poor app quality and interaction. Developers are then compelled to write quick-and-dirty patches to resolve problems, which is inherently dangerous and shoddy programming.

Google needs to address this issue carefully. There are a number of underpowered phones that are running Android version 1.5 to extremely high-end powerful phones with the latest version of 2.0 available. The inability of versions to run compatibility backwards or forwards mean that apps available on either version will only run on versions that are exactly the same as theirs.

The iPhone countered this via the launch of new phones along with the compulsion to use the iTunes interface to ensure that the phone software was up-to-date. Draconian and controlling as it may seem, Apple has hit a massive homerun with the iPhone because they have managed to control the entire experience of using the iPhone. Since customers only know one experience, Apple can easily run damage control when software or malicious threats arise.

Emulators would be the next logical step to ensuring that apps run across all platforms and hardware, however, the very nature of an emulator is to provide something akin to the real experience. There is always a cost of using an emulator; it may never really reflect how apps interact with the phone’s hardware and software. Resultantly, the developers are still left in a lurch how to deal with the variations.

Google needs to provide some means of standardizing the software available on all hardware or provide some form of an interface that would at least help users and developers diagnose problems with their Android-compatible phones. The logical assumption would be a web-based interface that lets users download from a central location similar to iTunes. Android’s Marketplace has the potential to become this point, however, it would need to be flawlessly designed and integrated with all hardware. With the specialist technology that Google has recently acquired, it would make sense that the Marketplace may receive a revamp that may provide an interface for phones to remain updated via Google.

http://EzineArticles.com/?Android-SDK-Variations-Cause-Development-Problems&id=3973030

The Android OS is becoming a very popular operating system for mobile phones. The marketshare of Android phone is quickly increasing and every cell phone carrier now has at least one Android phone in their lineup. Every cell phone manufacturer is also jumping on the bandwagon. The number of apps available for Android phones is now over 20,000.

If you are interested in creating your own applications for either personal use or for profit you will need the right tools. One of the first things you need is to Install Android SDK on your computer. This will show you the exact steps needed along with the different software required.

How to Install Android SDK with Eclipse

The Following are the steps to install android 2.0.1 SDK into eclipse for the first time if you want to start to develop Android apps.

1) Install java 6 SDK from the java website. If you already have a SDK installed make sure it is at least java 5 SDK

2) Install Eclipse Classic 3.5 from the downloads section of the eclipse website. If you already have eclipse installed make sure it is at least eclipse 3.4

3) Download the latest andorid SDK from the android developer website. Unzip the package to a location that you will remember and not delete. Then add this location to your System Path.

4) Install the ADT plugin for eclipse with the following instructions. From the Android Developer website

5) Use the AVD manager to download latest documentation and other SDK’s you would like to support 6) Start a new Android Project and start programming your Application

You can find all of the links along with the steps in the link in the signature box.

Good luck and have fun!

http://www.simplydroid.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_B_Baylor

Today, on Twitter, I've been having some back and forth with John Wilker, one of the founders of the 360|iDev Conferences about Android and the concept of "openness". The discussion really helped to clarify some of my thoughts on the matter (thanks, John!).

Now, I've been somewhat harsh on Android at times, but the things I'm harsh about are details and personal programming platform preferences. It's actually a pretty good platform with a huge amount of potential. It now appears to have reached the critical mass needed to really propel it forward, and I do have high hopes that it will keep moving forward, getting better, and pressuring Apple to do even more amazing things than they would have otherwise done.

Yesterday, Google IO ended, and it was clear from the tone of the conference that Google is planning to put up some fierce competition to Apple on several fronts, and that's good. A lot of Google's pitch was focused on this idea of "openness" - that Google's stuff is inherently more "open" (except, of course, the stuff they make money from, but that's a whole separate topic) and therefore better for the user. Tim Bray, Google's Android Evangelist, went off on a rather enthusiastic but somewhat silly Twitter rant a few days ago about openness and the "curated experience" of the iPhone. It's clear that Google sees "openness" as a competitive advantage over Apple and has made it their battle cry in the mobile space.

But, not too long ago, Google announced that it was ending direct sales of their phone, the Nexus One.

Here's the reality of the Android situation now: if you buy an Android phone, it will most likely be locked down by your carrier, possibly also with some features disabled. Or, to use Tim Bray's term, the reality is that most Android phones that get bought are a "curated experience".

In some places, some carriers will sell unlocked phones, but for a great many people, if you want an open Android phone, you will be required to buy one from a carrier and jailbreak it, which is likely a violation of your subscriber agreement. If you don't jailbreak it, you may not get future Android updates. If you buy an Android phone and don't jailbreak it, you might spend the entire life of your phone using the Android version that shipped on it. Your vendor could even charge you a ridiculous monthly fee for the upgrade, something that at least Verizon has considered doing. Even if your carrier does provide updates for free and regularly, there will be a delay as the vendor and provider add all their customizations and restrictions on top of the official Android release.

For the vast majority of people who will buy Android phones, "open" is an illusion because now that Google has abandoned their direct sales model, Android firmly puts the final decision making power for the overall experience of the phone back into the hands of the traditional carrier/vendor relationship that ruled the space before the iPhone came out. Apple, unlike other phone vendors, is capable of going toe-to-toe with the carriers and is willing to do so to fight for a better user experience. That's why we don't have AT&T branding all over our iPhones. That's why we don't have the mandatory 15-second spiel before voicemail that Verizon users have to suffer through. Apple is at least an equal partner with the carriers who sell their phones. Most of the other phone vendors, to put it bluntly, are the carriers' bitches.

Does Android have some nice features that the iPhone doesn't? Absolutely. Is Android improving? No doubt about it and on a regular basis to boot. But, by putting the real power back in the hand of the carriers and their vendor partners, the user experience is never going to be as important in the decision making process as it is for the iPhone. Even if the Android team manages to make the overall experience better than the iPhone (which I consider unlikely, but possible), the carriers will almost certainly screw it up with their ham-handed customizations and restrictions.

If you're going to have a curated experience, isn't it better to at least have one where the curator is making their decisions primarily around the quality of your experience?

Unless Google resumes direct sales or puts licensing limitations on the carriers to prevent them from locking down Android phones, "open" will be just another empty marketing slogan. And I suspect that's what it will be. Google doesn't really care about the user experience, they just want to keep making money on their proprietary, non-open advertising in the mobile space the way they have on the web, and the more Android phones that are out there, the more phones that will be getting Google Ads. Hell, Google even discussed the possibility of unblockable ads at Google IO!

Right. Nothing screams "open" like unblockable advertisements served using proprietary algorithms based on personal data that's been collected about what you do online.

Syndicated via RSS From: http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/

With Google expected to unveil its Android 2.2 operating system update this week at its I/O developer conference, details about the revamp continue to emerge, with new features slated to include built-in USB tethering and full Adobe Flash support. Citing screenshots as evidence, TechCrunch reports Android 2.2 (codenamed “Froyo,” derived from “frozen yogurt,” continuing the alphabetical, dairy-themed trend of previous Android OS updates) will enable users to share their data connection with their laptop via tethering, although it’s not clear whether operators can disable the feature or charge subscribers for the service. Users can also set up and manage their own portable WiFi hotspots. As for Flash support, Adobe Systems CTO Kevin Lynch confirmed the company would deliver Flash Player 10.1 for Android smartphones last month–Adobe is slated to preview the solution at I/O, with a general release planned for June.

In addition to new features, Android 2.2 is expected to significantly improve performance compared to earlier Android iterations. The Android Police website reports it is running Froyo on a Nexus One smartphone and claims speeds 450 percent faster than Android 2.1. “Flash is CPU hungry, so Android makes everything about the environment more efficient,” Android Police note. “[Google] made Android so much faster than it could finally run full Flash without a hitch.”

For more on Android 2.2:
- read this TechCrunch article

Related articles:
Google’s Android surpasses 50,000 applications
Can Google solve Android fragmentation?
Google aggressively wooing iPhone developers to Android
ABI forecasts 800 million Android app downloads in 2010

With dozens of smartphones spanning multiple manufacturers and all four major U.S. operator networks, it was inevitable that Android sales would surpass the iPhone sooner or later, and that time is now. Android represented 28 percent of first quarter smartphone unit sales in the U.S.–behind only Research In Motion’s BlackBerry (36 percent) and seven percentage points ahead of iPhone–according to new data issued by market research firm NPD Group, which credits carrier distribution and promotion as catalysts behind the Google operating system’s growth. “In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones,” said NPD executive director of industry analysis Ross Rubin in a prepared statement.

Android’s sales surge caps off an impressive quarter for the OS–in mid-April, Google said application inventory in its Android Market storefront increased 70 percent quarter-over-quarter, and according to tracking service AndroLib, there are now more than 50,000 Android applications in all, up from about 40,000 roughly a month ago. Of course, Android Market still lags far behind Apple’s App Store, which boasts more than 200,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod touch according to Apple’s latest count.

But Google is reportedly stepping up its efforts to court iPhone developers to write for Android, reaching out directly to programmers to convince them to expand their creative horizons. Last month, The New York Times’ David Pogue received a message from iPhone app developer Texts From Last Night, which was recently contacted by a Google representative claiming to write on behalf of the digital services giant’s Android Advocacy Group. “He basically said that he wanted to open a line of communication with me in case I chose to port the app to Android, and he offered to ship me a free Nexus One to play around with… Contrast with Apple’s approach: it took us about three months of resubmitting our app to Apple before they stopped rejecting it for inappropriate content. And even now (after we peaked at the No. 7 paid app), we still have no relationship with anyone there. Huge difference in approaches between the two companies.”

And yet for all the developers who’ve run afoul of Apple’s draconian App Store approval policies, defections from the iPhone platform remain relatively few and far between. Chalk it up to the bottom line: Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that iPhone developers presently generate $1 billion to $1.8 billion in annual App Store sales. That number stands to get a whole lot bigger: Sacconaghi forecasts Apple’s forthcoming iAd mobile advertising initiative could yield developer revenues reaching $825 million this year, an annual increase between 40 percent and 80 percent. (TechCrunch reports the iAd effort will incorporate the new ViP [Verification of iTunes Purchases] Program for App Downloads, a real-time conversion tracking system that will tie the ad directly into purchasing data from iTunes–according to an email pitch sent to select developers by mobile advertising network Quattro Wireless, acquired by Apple earlier this year, iAd will boast features that “cannot be duplicated by any of [Apple's] competitors.”)

Sacconaghi’s estimates are even more astounding given that estimates for total U.S. spending on mobile advertising in 2009 range from $184 million to $416 million. But iAd is not like past mobile advertising programs–The Wall Street Journal reports Apple is planning to charge marketers as much as $10 million for inclusion in the first wave of iAd promotions when the service goes live on iPhone and iPod touch devices in June. By comparison, ad execs say they typically pay between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar mobile deals. Sacconaghi anticipates Apple will collect about $815 million from iAd this year–$550 million from apps and $265 million from media providers like publishers and television networks–which the analyst contends would afford the company the latitude to subsidize the iPhone moving forward. If that’s true, then all bets are off. Android sales may have edged past iPhone for now, but iAd–and the new opportunities it portends for Apple and developers alike–could shift the balance of power once again. -Jason

Google’s Android mobile operating system now boasts more than 50,000 applications, up from about 40,000 roughly a month ago, according to tracking service AndroLib. The AndroLib numbers span inventories across close to a dozen different app download portals worldwide, not only Google’s Android Market storefront, according to Android Police–given current development trends, Android is poised to reach the 100,000 app milestone sometime in September.

Earlier this month, Google announced that Android Market offers about 38,000 apps, a 70 percent quarter-over-quarter increase. Speaking during the firm’s Q1 earnings call in mid-April, vice president of engineering Jeff Huber also said Google is now selling and activating more than 60,000 new Android devices each day, with the OS powering 34 total devices from a dozen different OEM partners.

Developer interest in Android continues to rise: According to a recent survey conducted by mobile advertising network AdMob, more than 70 percent of existing iPhone developers said they plan to extend their efforts to Android, compared to 48 percent of Android developers planning iPhone projects. Thirty-five percent of existing Android developers consider their app’s release “very successful,” with 29 percent deeming it “somewhat successful.” Perhaps most notable, 40 percent label themselves “very satisfied” with the Android platform, another 40 percent are “somewhat satisfied” and only 2 percent express dissatisfaction.

For more on Android’s app milestone:
- read this Android Police article

Related articles:
Can Google solve Android fragmentation?
Google aggressively wooing iPhone developers to Android
ABI forecasts 800 million Android app downloads in 2010
IDC anticipates Android shipments will near 70 million by 2013

Smartphone shipments worldwide will increase to 390 million units by 2013–a compound annual growth rate of 20.9 percent over the 2009-2013 forecast period in question–according to research firm IDC. While IDC predicts the Symbian operating system will retain its global leadership position over that time thanks largely to Nokia’s dominance in markets outside of the U.S., Android is expected to experience faster growth than any of its rivals, leaping from 2008 shipments of 690,000 to 68 million units by 2013, a CAGR of 150.4 percent. IDC adds Android will benefit from the growing footprint of handset vendors supporting the platform, and will finish second to Symbian in shipments by 2013.

On the flipside, IDC forecasts Linux and Palm’s webOS shipments will struggle throughout the forecast period. Shipments of Linux-powered devices are expected to trend down due to greater emphasis on the Android platform, although some vendors will continue to support the platform–as for webOS, IDC believes the operating system will grow steadily, but will ultimately capture only narrow market share as a result of limited deployment and operator availability.

For more on the IDC forecast:
- read this release

Related articles:
Android explodes into the consumer consciousness
Over half of Android developers dissatisfied with app profits

LAS VEGAS–AT&T Mobility President and CEO Ralph de la Vega used the company’s annual mobile developer event here to announce the company’s four-pronged approach to strengthening its wireless business. The conference, held at the Palms Casino and Resort the day prior to the opening of the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, attracted more than 1,000 mobile developers–nearly three times the number that the event attracted in the past.

Specifically, de la Vega said AT&T wants to help developers by reducing all the fragmentation that makes mobile app development so expensive and difficult. De la Vega said AT&T will strengthen its smartphone portfolio by supporting all the various mobile operating systems. He said the carrier would help developers sell more apps by supporting all the major OEM app stores, and by offering apps to consumers who own mid-level wireless devices (not smartphones). Finally, de la Vega said the firm will strengthen its app developer program and continue to invest in its network.

AT&T plans to launch five exclusive smartphones that support Google’s Android operating system (see related story here) from Dell, Motorola and HTC, and it also will launch two devices running Palm’s webOS operating system. Those webOS devices will be exclusive to AT&T and will be announced later this year.

Regarding app stores, de la Vega said the company will support all app stores from the major OEMs, and will provide technical support for those app stores. In addition, AT&T customers who buy apps from Nokia’s Ovi storefront will be billed directly through AT&T.

But perhaps the most surprising news from AT&T was that it will use Qualcomm’s BREW MP platform to allow consumers with mid-level messaging devices to buy applications. “We want to make apps available to a bigger segment of the market,” de la Vega said. He added that by 2011, AT&T expects 90 percent of new AT&T messaging devices to sport the BREW MP platform.

A new AT&T SDK is available for the BREW platform. And BREW MP will be backward compatible, making it easier for existing BREW developers to transition to BREW MP.

AT&T currently supports Java applications for feature phones.

According to David Christopher, the chief marketing officer of AT&T Mobility, the company also is developing a new storefront strategy, call the App Center, which will focus on discoverability and offer direct-carrier billing. Specifically, AT&T is offering a 70/30 revenue share for all new contracts.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Ovi release

Related articles:
Rumor Mill: Is Motorola making AT&T’s first Android phone?
Rumor Mill: AT&T prepping Android assault
AT&T declines Moto’s Android advances?
Report: AT&T may launch Dell Android phone in 2010

If 2009 was the year that manufacturers and developers fully embraced Google’s Android mobile operating system, then 2010 is already shaping up as the year consumers follow suit. According to new data published by research firm ChangeWave, 4 percent of smartphone owners surveyed in mid-December say they’re currently using Android, up three points over September totals; more significantly, 21 percent of respondents planning to purchase a smartphone in the next 90 days say they’d prefer the device run on the Android OS–a 15 point jump in just three months. ChangeWave notes that as of September 2009, Android was tied for dead last in consumer preference among the major operating systems–now, it’s in second place among future buyers, behind only the iPhone OS X at 28 percent, down 4 percentage points in the last three months. Android’s rise also comes at the expense of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Palm’s webOS–6 percent of consumers say they plan to purchase a WinMo device, down from 9 percent in September, while webOS slipped from 6 percent to 3 percent quarter-over-quarter. Only Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS held relatively steady between September and December, increasing from 17 percent to 18 percent among prospective smartphone buyers.

ChangeWave forecasts that Motorola’s Droid stands to benefit most from consumer demand for Android devices–in fact, 13 percent of shoppers say they plan to purchase a Motorola smartphone in the next three months, a 12-point jump over September 2009 and the handset maker’s first increase in a ChangeWave consumer smartphone survey in three years. In addition, 9 percent of prospective smartphone buyers are now eyeing HTC devices, up from 5 percent in the previous survey, corresponding with the November release of the Droid Eris. Word of mouth is also working in Android’s favor, with 72 percent of current Android users telling ChangeWave they’re very satisfied with their smartphone, behind iPhone users at 77 percent but well ahead of BlackBerry (41 percent), Palm OS/webOS (33 percent) and Windows Mobile (25 percent).

Not all Android purchases are looming in the immediate future–it appears that a large number of consumers received Android devices over the holidays as well. Mobile application analytics provider Flurry reports Android Market app downloads increased 22 percent between November and December, with downloads to Droid units up 93 percent on Christmas Day over previous Fridays last month. In all, the Droid now accounts for 49 percent of all Android Market downloads, followed by the myTouch 3G at 18 percent, the HTC Hero at 17 percent and the G1 at 16 percent. Flurry adds that Apple’s App Store download volume is still more than 13 times greater than Android Market–regardless, Android has made enormous strides over the past year, and that trend will continue in 2010. -Jason