Android

What is Android?

A mobile device operating system.

Seen primary in tablets and Cellphones.

Based on a Linux kernel. Applications are

Java Based
Open source and given freely to both
developers and cellphone manufactures

Android Market Share is growing

A simple app can make pretty penny

Kim, a former Volkswagen

engineer and co-founder of San
Francisco-based startup Picwing,
now earns $13,000 each month off
an Android app called Car Locator

How hard is it to make an app?

Not difficult at all.

If you know Java you practically know Android.

Google provides all the tools.

Google provides comprehensive tutorials.

Many matured book resources available

Main concepts to an Android Application

Java

Android SDK

XML

Android VM

Android SDK
The Android SDK includes everything to connect
an application to the UI and comes with the
emulator and a simple GUI creator.

Android tools

GUI tools

Application Emulator

SDK connecting Java to a GUI

XML
From Wikipedia

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a set of rules

for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It
is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification[4] produced
by the W3C, and several other related specifications,
all gratis open standards.[5]

The design goals of XML emphasize simplicity,

generality, and usability over the Internet.[6] It is a
textual data format with strong support via Unicode
for the languages of the world. Although the design
of XML focuses on documents, it is widely used for
the representation of arbitrary data structures, for
example in web services.

Android and XML

Android uses XML for anything that isn't the

actual program.

GUI.

Information about the program, ie the version

Enables future web based extensions

(XML is primarily web)

XML Android does it for you

GUI to XML

Android Virtual Device

A virtual machine used for testing applications

Allows Developers to test a wide range of
device.

These devices could be a tablets, cellphones or

low powered computers.

It's a VM, thus allows consistent testing to

happen on any computer set up with the SDK!

How to make an app.

Setting Up.
You need

Eclipse
http://www.eclipse.org/
Plugin
http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html
Android SKD
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Run the SDK

Simply hit accept all

The update will take a while.

Start installing the a
on.

To install the plug in

Start Eclipse
Go to Help, install new software

Getting Started

developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/

Android applications launched from eclipse run

off a Virtual Machine (Android Virtual Device)
To set up the ADV in eclipse

window-> Android SDK and AVD Manager.

Click New
Use next frame as a guide for settings

Create a new Project

Application name. This is the human-readable

title for your application
Package name. This is the package
namespace. Think Java Name space
Create Activity. Creates a class, and auto
creates the onCreate method. onCreate,
think of it as main
Min SDK Version. The minimum Android API
to run the application.

http://developer.android.com/index.html

Programming
Main concepts

No main, instead an onCreate method.

This should be auto defined in new set up

or manually added later

Listeners and observers. You tell Android what

method is connected to what buttons

GUI

Launcher Example

This should be autogenerated for you

assuming a correct
project set up.

Listener Example

Listener XML (different applications)

Create GUIs

GUIs are rarely manually created. There are

generators for Android for GUIs.

Droid Draw. A Drag and Drop style application.

Not perfect, but great for quickly making a slick
interface.
http://www.droiddraw.org/

So you think you can develop

It's easy, it's simple and you can make a lot of
money! What else is there to think about?

Fees: cost to actually sell an application.

Development hurdles.

How does Android stand up to Apple?

Google fees
To sell an application, one must have a Google
Checkout account.

Google charges 20 dollars for the account.

Google also charges 3% to withdraw your
profits. This is in addition to the 30% cut for
selling an app.
In the end, Google consumes 33% of your sale
price.

https://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=112622

Issues with Android Development

The strength of Google Android platform is its
flexibility. Anyone can put their version of
Android on any hardware.
This is a pain for developers.

Random amount of RAM, different CPUs,

screen sized and manufacture changes to the
phone make it almost impossible to make
completely compatible applications.

Solutions

Testing

Testing

Testing

A developer just simply has to test using the

AVDs and watch for error reports. The android
SDK should stop most compatibility issues.
High resource applications should consider
putting system requirements.

Why are iPhone aps better?

Gem Miner

Infinity Blade

Top 10 Android Game

Top 10 iPhone game

Industry views android users as cheaper than apple

users. If one can afford an iPhone, whats a 1, 5,
15, 60 dollars for an ap? Many android users
even pride themselves on never buying a paid ap.
More users willing to spend more money, the more
big companies such as EA or EPIC are willing to
invest into a platform.
This is highlighted on the previous screen. Game
on the left is a smaller company game. Game on
the right is also likely a smaller company, but it is
using EPICs unreal engine for iPhone.

More money, more tools.

Conclusion

Android is a great platform gaining strength every

day.

If your main goal is to make as much money as

possible creating applications, it is still better to
go with Apple.
If you want to make apps quickly and with less
hassle go with Android. Apple is extremely strict
with their sales process and requirements