One goal of mine for this year is to become more involved in mobile application development. In the next eight months, I’d like to explore Android, WebOS, Blackberry’s QNX, and iOS in more depth. This post will highlight my initial exploration inside the popular Android OS.

What is Android?
Android is an open-source operating system solution initially developed by Android Inc. and later purchased by Google in 2005. Together with the Open Handset Alliance (an alliance of over 80 companies, many of which are well-known), Android provides an open ecosystem across multiple devices.

Why develop for Android?

• The Android market is definitely growing. In December 2010, Google stated over 300,000 Android phones were being activated daily (compared to 100,000 seven months earlier).
• There is room to grow as there are less applications than market leader iOS with 200,000 (Dec ‘10) versus 350,000 (Mar ‘11).
• It’s easy for developers to jump in with Java or Flash through AIR.
• Possible downsides to developing for Android are early opportunities to develop for the latest pushes in the WebOS platform, Blackberry’s QNX OS, and of course the still growing iPhone worldwide base.

What are the development options for Android?
Most if not all of the Android source code is programmed in C, C++, and Java. However, to actually develop applications for it, the official IDE, which is built on eclipse, expects you to use Java and XML. Alternatively, Flash Developers have the ability to develop Android applications through Adobe AIR, which is certainly something I am interested in exploring. Other interesting options I’m exploring revolve around cross-platform development environments where third-party companies create frameworks and tools to target many mobile operating systems simultaneously with some even touting native support (I.e. Rhomobile, Appcelerator).

Where to go from here?
At this point, if you are interested in making an Android application, I’d suggest doing a little more reading via the reading list at the bottom of this article with the aim of choosing an IDE that suits your needs and skills. After that, demo up a Hello World app and get it running in all its glory. The next step is where the fun begins… suggest you come up with 25 simple ideas for applications or games, taking one through the process to fulfillment with a small team or just yourself if you have the skills to pull it off. Don’t budge on quality and send me a ping when you’re really done.

More Reading
Wikipedia
Android.com
5 Cross-Platform Mobile Development Tools You Should Try
Native Android Development or Adobe AIR?
Getting Started with Adobe AIR for Android