Getting in on a shoestring budget with Android development and wooing hobbyist developers seems hard.
I come from an Iphone development background. I develop mostly free to small applications. I'm interested in developing for the Google Android, but I'm interested in poising this question to the group. For someone like me, I'm going to say small->hobby developer, is cross- platform mobile development out of the question? Please read on as I'm thoroughly interested in exploring this subject matter. Bit of a background I have a job, java programmer so I already see that I maybe able to re-use my existing skill set, and develop mobile applications on the side. I'm relatively new to the field but I was impressed with how the Iphone's on screen keyboard worked. I was one of the first TMobile G1 adapters and liked it for quite some time until I got my hands on an Iphone, I believed you always needed a keyboard of sorts but the Iphone put that to rest for me. I would like to move back to Android, I just didn't feel it with the G1 and it left a bad taste in my mouth. But some of the new spec'd devices look great and would like to love the Android like I do with other Google products. I'm interested in doing cross platform development. I'm not rich nor a big company, is there room for someone like me to get onto the Android development wagon? Or, is all this hoopla targeted towards the big development houses? one thing I thought with mobile computing is that it leveled the playing field, but as more and more big development houses come on board our chances of success as an indie developer pretty much goes to nil. There is no way I can compete with the big houses on development or marketing budgets. But my biggest cost to entry and I see this for other developers is Apple has time and a large amount of "invested" Iphone developers. What I mean by invested is in order to get started, let's take the minimum legitimate route you require a Mac thats $599 minimum only if you have a compatible monitor,mouse, and keyboard for the Mac Mini. The $99 yearly membership fee for the Iphone development program. Then books and/or classes, I got by with 2 books. On top of that the cost of an Iphone and its monthly associated cell bill. You can see the typical person already is invested $1000+. This is nothing to big house development companies but for us small time to hobby developers (I would be happy to make $1 to $2 a day) developing on 2 platforms is not cost prohibitive. This question is how willing is the Android platform willing to bring over Iphone developers or does the platform care about us small time developers? I'm thinking the answer is No, from my years in working in the industry its always been the cliche of 'if you can't afford to play, don't play'. But isn't it viable to think that the more developers Android can garner the better it will be in terms of apps and user satisifaction? Below are some comparison and I'm asking for a fair, well thought out rebuttal: -Hardware with Iphone you do deal with its 'generations' but for most of the matter they're pretty close together and the OS releases matches the hardware. How is the Android? I had a gripe with G1 when they released the next model soon afterwards and it had Droid 2 and some other hardware improvements I felt punished for being an early adopter. This also brings up another topic of forked, or different variations, of hardware. What hardware do you target? Phones don't give you an easy way to upgrade. If I were in contract and I wanted to move my development efforts to Android I would be forced to pay the ETF if I wanted to get an Android phone or pay 2 bills at once. As I said, I'm small time and can not justify that cost to my wife. -Itunes this gives great visiblity. I don't know if anything has changed with the G1 days. But visiblity was poor for me because I would scroll a couple screens, try and do a search, but would just leave. With Itunes you see apps on your computer, navigation on the computer is so much easier, you select a program and send it to your Iphone. Does Android, or Google, now have this type of application market or someway of making applications visibile even if for some time? This is a great way for the small development companies, or hobbyist to get exposure. Because we all eventually end up on the front page of Itunes, not for most downloaded, but when initially deployed. -For me its not a problem because I can leverage my existing JAVA skills. I program in JAVA everyday. However, I have taken the time and money to invest in learning how to program the Iphone. Now that I have made that investment, and its nowhere paid off, from my endeavor. How do I justify the cost and time of learning to program for the Android? If my development efforts make $300 a year I would consider it a success because its a hobby, and it somewhat negates some of my phone bill and other costs. But that no where nearly gives me enough money to justify going multiplatform. I think thats what Apple has with it being on the market longer it was able to garner a huge developer community. Now made up of hobbyist and small time companies. How does Android win us over? Or, what is the argument that Android makes to bring us over? I don't know how much the Android platform has changed. I wish GOOGLE had a developer open house or something where we small time developers can get our hands on an Android to either play with it, without being committed to a monthly payment, and to learn about its feature set. I would participate in that program as I would love for GOOGLE to prove to me of what the phone is capable of doing. Nowadays its a short time you can spend with the phone (7 days) and return it if it doesn't work out for you. 7 days is no where near as long as it would take to flesh out if you have the grasp of the language, nor to really grasp the capability of the device you have in your hands. Maybe being able to buy the device and just use it via Wi-Fi, but then you can't test it for applications in locations that requires 2/3G access. But getting to feel the device and work with its SDK would be a huge boon to determine if I should move over. I know alot of you are thinking 'develop on the simulator' its not the same. Sometimes a bug doesn't show up until you actually have it on a device, and I can't afford several devices. It would be great if GOOGLE had a presentation in their headquarters it would be awe inspiring. I would drive up for that and maybe give attendees a hands on with the ANDROID platform for the day, but then my argument of not enough time. And that's where my point lies, is most of the developers, ones I know of, don't work in big software houses. We are small time hobbyist that probably doesn't even show up as a blip to Google or Apple. I believe once their are droves of developers move to the Android, I like what it stands for, and the ease of programming for it from what I hear. GOOGLE has a long road ahead of them I don't know how they'll approach it or if they even care about us small timers, but I do hope my arguments make sense and that someone at Google is devising a way to reach all developers. The mobile platform is a hard market. And with Apple having time, end users have invested some monies in apps and music, that it maybe hard for the end user to switch as well. Maybe GOOGLE has some sort of trade in program I'm not aware of, or an easy entrance developer program. I know the SDK is free but the cost of non-subsidized phones are just huge. There are a lot of developers out there but I think a majority of them fall into the hobbyist to small companies. Don't get me wrong if I can get a job being a mobile developer that would be great! I would happily jump ship as I can justify getting another phone to develop on. Any thoughts? Anyone know what GOOGLE is cooking up? Do they care about the small developers or is it the big companies they're looking to attract. It would be great if GOOGLE did a case study or switch on how a former Iphone developer is now a Android developer, and maybe state all the great things google did to help them make that switch. Perhaps a video or series of videos comparing development on one spectrum to the other. Until mobile development becomes cheaper I fear that my only recourse as a small time developer is to stay with a platform I've already invested in. Feel free to post or email me, would love to hear clear headed rebuttal or addition to my argument on the subject. I really do wish I can see what all the hoopla is about and go out and get Android powered device, but being a hobbyist I feel that I'm shut out and there is no way I can make the transition. I know we live in a money driven society so basically I'm weeded out for not being with a big company,successful, or having money and I'm ok with that but I do think a large amount of developers are the small to one man shops. Sam -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
