By now surely you are aware of Google's operating system for mobile devices that is called Android. This OS is based upon the Linux kernel and GNU software. Recent studies have shown that unit sales for Android operating system-enabled smartphones ranked in the top spot among all smartphone OS handsets that have been sold in the United States during the second quarter of 2010, at 33%. Coming in second is the Blackberry operating system with 28% and iOS ranking third at 22%.
There are a great many ">Android Development specialists at work today who are creating apps for the handheld devices that feature the Google-owned operating system. There are now more than 100,000 apps available for download with more being submitted for approval on an on-going basis. Originally, only free apps were supported but paid-for applications have been available in the Android market since early 2009 which has resulted in a fast expansion of the marketplace.
Android Apps Development was recently made a bit easier for novice developers when Google unveiled the App Inventor which was specifically designed for their operating system. The App Inventor provides access to Android-enabled devices' global positioning systems, accelerometer, phone functions, text messaging, speech to text conversion, web services and contact data. There is absolutely no programming knowledge required to use App Inventor because instead of writing codes you design your app visually and use blocks to specify the app's behavior. There are blocks available that allow you to store information, for repeating actions and blocks designed to perform actions only under certain conditions. There are even blocks that can be used to connect directly with online services such as Twitter.
Considering the fact that this is an open development platform, those involved in Android App Development have the chance to build very rich and innovative applications. Developers are free to take advantage of the hardware, access location information and run background services, add notifications to the status bar and a whole lot more. The same framework APIs used by the core applications are fully accessible to developers.
Due to the fact that App Inventor lets you access a GPS location sensor, you are able to build applications that know where you are located. You can design and build an application that helps you to find your parked car and an app that shows you the location of your friends or colleagues for example. Using the phone feature of an Android-enabled smartphone allows you to write an app that sends out a customized text to whoever you want or an app that automatically texts messages to them that you are busy with work for example. Your incoming texts can even be read aloud to you if you wish.
There is a definite shift happening concerning the way that people use their mobile devices. As people become more comfortable accessing the mobile web, Google wants to help them create applications that allows them to engage the mobile space as developers, even if they have little or no programming skills. App Inventor is still in beta form and so far it is allowing us to do all this that Google promises. This tool has been found to be useful by educators who are trying to help students become the creators of technology instead of only consumers.
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