In late April 2009, Google released Android 1.5.
In mid-September 2009, Google released Android 1.6.
In late October 2009, Google released Android 2.0.
That is three version releases in a span of six months. Progress is great. Progress is necessary. But there is going to be some fallout for this flood of Android versions, both with consumers and developers. Read more
Android 2.0 is a big win for Android users. Google Maps Navigation, better contact management, more camera features, Exchange integration, and the like are all boons for those owning Android 2.0 devices. Developers get the long-lost Bluetooth APIs, along with a contact sync framework, more CDMA APIs, and the like, adding new areas for apps and feature expansion for users owning Android 2.0 devices.
The key is who all has Android 2.0 devices. Read more
Marco Arment (of Tumblr and Instapaper fame) wrote a piece for his blog back on October 9th, profiling the two sides to the iPhone App Store. While his analysis was aimed at the iPhone, I believe it holds fairly true for Android as well...particularly if we can develop a better framework for what Mr. Arment calls “App Store B”. Read more
Recently, a few device manufacturers and carriers have begun reaching out to Android developers, ranging from posts on official Android Google Groups to holding developer conferences. Compared to life a year ago, this is great, and we really appreciate the gestures. However, in other respects, these attempts were somewhat fumbled, posting what amounts to press releases in a developer forum and spending lots of keynote time on company positioning statements. Read more
Right now, it is very straightforward — if you publish on Android Market, your application will be made available for free download outside of the Market. This appears to hold true regardless of whether or not you are using the built-in Android Market copy protection mechanisms, which have been demonstrated to be ineffective. Read more
Long-time readers of this column will know that one of my big gripes with the Android project is communication, or the lack thereof. I have not complained as much about that recently because, in some areas, things are steadily improving. Getting technical answers, in particular, is working out about as well as can reasonably be expected, particularly given the growing size of the Android developer community.
What has not improved, though, is the ability to get any questions answered outside of pure programming issues. Read more
There has been a recent upswing in blog posts and the like regarding fragmentation of the Android platform. People see a widening range of devices, from HTC going with a resistive touchscreen for the Tattoo, to Motorola's CLIQ with a D-pad instead of a trackball, to the 5” WVGA screen of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. Read more
Recently, Androlib.com has made available statistics they have culled from the Android Market. Their data highlights how the Android Market is not that dissimilar from other markets, and so Android developers can use lessons learned elsewhere to help them understand how the Android Market behaves. Read more
Apple's marketing campaign for the iPhone has been brilliant, as is their wont. The aspect of it that I find most compelling, though, is the “there's an app for that” campaign. In one fell swoop, they demonstrate to possible buyers the breadth of the App Store catalog and give worthy iPhone app developers a boost.
Android could use something along those lines. However, given the highly fragmented Android ecosystem, I cannot realistically expect much in the way of marketing campaigns. Read more
The T-Mobile G1 has had storm clouds over it since shortly after its introduction, mostly stemming from on-board storage. Initially, the complaints were targeted at lack of space for installing third-party applications. Now, the complaints are lack of space for the Android OS itself, which at some point will mean no more Android updates for that device. Read more
In recent days, two major tech pundits, Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis, have come out swinging against Apple's tactics with respect to the iPhone App Store, iTunes integration, and related topics. Long-time Apple fans appear to be scratching their heads, wondering what has changed, and making statements like:
"It’s not Apple’s responsibility to ensure that competing products from rival companies do well in the market place."
But, perhaps it will need to be their responsibility. Read more
The Zii EGG has fascinating hardware specs, starting with its StemCell architecture and “multi-gesture” display. If this were a consumer device, it would be interesting. If it were a consumer Android device, it would be a significant advance, due to its processing power, dual cameras, HDMI out, and so on.
As the foundation for “creating compelling 'own brand' media-rich devices and applications”, it, and devices like it, are the future. Read more
This past weekend featured a bit of a dust-up in the Android blogging community. Tactically, the issue was one of confusion between Donut (the development branch in the Android open source repositories) and Donut (the code-name for an update to Android). Strategically, the issue really centers around Google's role in building a developer ecosystem around Android, particularly in light of efforts by Motorola to do the same, with the MOTODEV Studio for Android and related initiatives. Read more
I have had a few conversations, and picked up a vibe in a few blogs, about how Android applications look worse than do corresponding iPhone applications. My interpretation of these feelings is that while both products have a bell curve of UI quality in the contents of their respective app markets, Android's curve may generally be lower than is that of iPhone. So, while there are any number of high-quality Android UIs, and presumably some truly awful iPhone apps, on the whole, Android apps fare worse in the comparison.
It is not completely clear why this is the case. It is probably partially due to toolkit emphases, and partially iPhone's ability to tap into OS X design experience. There is probably also a bit of the “reality distortion field” at play — I have seen ports of an iPhone app on Android and thought, perhaps irrationally, that the iPhone one looked better, despite both having the same design characteristics.
However, I get the sense that a lot of the problem is that Android applications may not get the GUI design attention that their iPhone counterparts get. Read more
Having mapping features in one's application is popular in Android applications. After all, Android is from Google, and Google does maps. Google Maps is available in the Android SDK, and you get a fairly nice user experience. Implementing a map with overlays (for your own “push pins” or route markers) is reasonably simple for skilled developers. All in all, it is a nice solution.
However, Google Maps for Android has its issues, and there are alternatives that you may wish to consider. Read more
Yesterday saw the announcement of Google Chrome OS, “an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.” “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS...Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year.”
Replace “Google Chrome OS” with Android and “netbook” with smartphones, and this could have been a reprint of the 2007 announcement for Android. Read more
To date, in consumer-grade devices, Android can come in any screen size you want, so long as it is HVGA (320x480). That, my friends, is going to change, and soon: Read more
Perhaps the weakest link in the Android chain is the Android Market. Frankly, it is uninspiring: limited searching, limited descriptions, limited dialogue between developers and customers, limited customer service to developers from the Market managers. Moreover, since it is proprietary and closed up tight as a clamshell, there is no effective way for the community to help make the Market better. Yet, we need a powerful app market for Android to be a long-term success. Read more
Michael Tan of CNET Asia argues that with Android shortly being available for MIPS, that there will be little green robots everywhere. After all, the MIPS CPU is ubiquitous in consumer electronics gear, from set-top boxes to classic PDAs to game consoles. Read more
Back in January 2009, I wrote a post entitled Pre-Conceived Notions, about the probable success of the Palm Pre and WebOS, based upon their strategy versus that of Google/OHA and Android. Now that the Pre is out and about, let's revisit some of those “notions” and see where the Pre may go from here. Read more
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