Five Things Every Android Developer Should Know

Bangalore: You have picked wisely; Android is the right choice. Android is the easiest, most versatile and most capable mobile OS in the present market. They have the support, vision and resources of Google to back them all the way. Consider these chief points while developing in the Android platform:

1.    Support: Beginners and experienced developers need to know where they can expect help from. Since Android is open, the development community has the same natural passion which was responsible for the creation of Linux. These developers are friendly and extremely helpful. The avenue that helps with all Android development support issues is the Google Android groups. This is accessed and updated by Google Android employees. Their contributions are extremely helpful.

2.    Integrated Development Environment (IDE): The software development kit doesn’t mandate any IDE but instead it shows you how to develop Android Apps without one. As your projects get bigger and more complex, the usage of automated build and test tools become more necessary. Still, for the majority of Android developers an IDE is pretty much essential. Some of the contenders are Eclipse, Netbeans and IntelliJ Idea.

3.    Java: As far as writing apps on Smartphones goes, Java is the best option when it comes to ease of usage. The reference is to the flavour of Java which Android has implemented, aka "Dalvik". It's completely compatible .You obviously need to know Java but all the data you will need, like best practices to optimization to reusable libraries is available.

4.    Graphic Design: You need to see yourself as the artist and Android as the canvas. While you don’t need to be a digital Da Vinci, you need to remember that apps with bad UIs just don’t sell no matter how awesome their functionality is. If you work in a team with dedicated graphic designers, you get an unbeatable advantage. In Android, the emphasis is on PNG files as they have good support for layers and transparency, so you can pick from a number of open source or commercial offerings as long as they can deal well with this format. Popular choices are Fireworks, Photoshop, CorelDraw / PaintShop Pro / PhotoPaint and Gimp.

5.    The Open Market: When you hear Android is open, it implies more than just the OS source, it implies the market as well. After your app is uploaded, within 5 minutes it will be available in the market. You need to know how the Android Market works, as this will help when it comes to planning distribution channels for your app. Firstly, any Android device that can access your apps through websites, email attachments or Bluetooth can install them.

Currently, to buy from the Android store users must have a Google Checkout account. T-Mobile, however, have just announced plans to support integrated billing, where the users purchases appear on their monthly phone bill. Many Android developers have welcomed this news as they feel that the lack of such a service has been limiting purchase of their apps. In the future there might be a web or desktop app which allows users to buy apps directly, and then have them appear on their handsets.