Mobile Application Development with Android

With an exponential growth in smartphone market and digital lifestyle trend, mobile app industry comes into focus. Current modern lifestyle is mostly based on a smartphone we carry in our pockets or purses, and connectivity has increased like never before. Everyone is connected to each other, the world, the society and what not. If solo credit needs to be given to a single platform, Android certainly deserve that.

 

Apple iPhones are probably the most worthy counterpart to Android. The competition was so uneven in the initial days but with so many improvements and overhaul of Android app development technologies, things are changing.

 

Early Day Glitches in Android

Android has to go through ups and downs, keeping the impression wasn’t so easy when they began. Not just for the users, even the Android app developers had to go through a lot –

 

• Eclipse IDE was very buggy. There weren’t many proper tools for app development, of course a plier can’t get the job of a screw driver. Eclipse was named the official IDE for Android platform but very soon, the developers were disheartened to see the unfriendly UI, complex features and slower speed.

• The OS fragmentation bugged the developers for quite a long period of time. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brought massive change to the way android looks and works, but by that time there were still many Android devices on the market than ran Android 2.3 Gingerbread or below. Developers had to keep up with both platform types – which wasn’t very pleasant.

•  Since Android runs on a whole lot of devices, app testing was a hectic job. Of course there were emulators, but they were hell slow! Established app development firms somehow still managed to get plenty of devices for app testing, the app development startups couldn’t get so lucky. As a result, we had many buggy apps during the initial days.

• Compared to iPhones, early day Android UI was boring. iPhones had smoother transitions and animated effects whereas Android users only had left to right swipe and long tap for extended options.

 

 

Present Time

2015 has changed things a lot, which makes Android a more rewarded platform for the developers.

•  Android Studio is the new IDE for Android app development. It’s official and so much better than Eclipse IDE. Aside from new development, users can migrate their previously developed apps to this ecosystem for a much better experience.

• Gradle makes automation better for Android projects. Gradle can very efficiently divide apps into different flavors, implement correct configurations into apps or increment the build number on its own – few highlights why developers are moving to Gradle.

• Lollipop is the sweetest release from Android as Google claims, which is true to many extents. People love material design, so does the developers. The boring UI has been gone forever; and this attracts people from other smartphone platforms to migrate into Android.

• Eventually, Android is putting a bite in the premium smartphone market. iPhones aren’t the only premium smartphones anymore; last two years have seen so many excellent Android handsets that easily outrun Apple devices. As consumer interest now grows on Android, developers are becoming more interested on Android app development.

 

Conclusion

Android has made an impact in the worldwide electronics market within less than a decade. If this pace keeps going, there will be unimaginable new discovering in the next few years – that’s a safe assumption to make.