I have found the emulator to be useful for testing the screen sizes but little else. The emulator is fine for basic functionality tests but it is woefully inadequate for determining if an app will run without crashing on any particular device. Each manufacturer has added their own sauce to the OS. Each device has its peculiarities and oddities. The only sure way to know if your app is going to run on it is to see for yourself. Of course, you can play the wait and see game to find out by reading the market comments or feedback e-mails from users. I prefer to be proactive. Google in the past has been great in "seeding" the community of developers with devices. I hope they continue doing this.
It's pretty easy to develop a beta test community. I added a "Looking for beta testers" message to my help text and got about a 1% response from users who were willing to do so. This has been very helpful in creating updates that don't crash and work on all devices. For my last update of "Radar Now!" I had over 200 testers run the beta and a few surprises were uncovered and fixed as a result. This is a heck of a lot cheaper than owning the 50+ devices that Android runs on. Another method that worked for me was to advertise in the app that I was looking for a specific problematic device to test the app on. When the DROIDX first came out, I got reports that some of the functions didn't work. I put a location specific ad on the app that only showed in my area and within a few days I got two volunteers offering help. I met one of them at a local Starbucks and tested it out. While this type of ad may not be possible in most apps, it does demonstrate that with a little initiative and clever thinking, you can solve a lot of these issues without actually owning the device. A third possibility, would be to establish a relationship with your local offices of the carriers. Most Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and other carrier stores have demo units available for potential customers. If you can establish a working relationship with those stores, you can test your apps on their demo units for free. -John Coryat -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
