Each platform has a different version of the Android SDK that may be installed on users’ devices.
Download the Android SDK for your platform (Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux).If you need more detail, Google’s own developer pages do a good job of explaining the installation and configuration process. The recommended environment for developing Android applications is Eclipse with the Android Development Toolkit (ADT) plugin installed. As well as the technical SDK documentation, new resources are being published for Android developers as the platform gains popularity among both users and developers.Įnough with the talk - let’s get started developing for Android! Installing Eclipse and the Android SDK.Amazon have recently been rumoured to be preparing their own Android app store also. For instance, you can release your application on your own blog. You’re not just limited to one store, because there are alternatives, too. By distributing your application on Android Market, it’s available to hundreds of thousands of users instantly.If you’re familiar with the Java programming language, you’re already halfway there. The Android SDK is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, so you don’t need to pay for new hardware to start writing applications.Here are a few other advantages Android offers you as a developer:
Publishing to Android Market incurs a one-off registration fee (US $25 at the time of writing) and, unlike Apple’s App Store which famously reviews each submission, makes your application available for customers to download and buy after a quick review process - unless the application is blatantly illegal. When you’re ready to show off your application to the world, you can publish it to Google’s Android Market. Android exposes your application to all sorts of hardware that you’ll find in modern mobile devices - digital compasses, video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, and more.Īndroid’s free development tools make it possible for you to start writing software at little or no cost.
Which platform should you choose? What programming language should you learn? What kit do you need for your planned project? In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to start writing applications for Android, the open-source mobile operating system popularized by Google. So much choice can be overwhelming when you just want to get started building mobile applications.
With increasingly sophisticated hardware, tablet PCs and a variety of software platforms (Symbian OS, iOS, WebOS, Windows Phone 7…), the landscape for mobile developers is full of opportunities - and a little complex as well. There’s a lot to get excited about in mobile application development today.