In a few hours, I will head to Asia Pacific College to give an introductory talk about Android applications development. I haven’t been to APC for a very long time, and I haven’t talked in front of a crowd for a very long time as well, much less give an introductory talk inside an auditorium—but no matter, I think all will be well.

I think I will structure the talk like this;

What is it

A Linux based Operating System for mobile devices Developed by OHA (Open Handset Alliance) led by Google Inc A rich development platform for mobile applications The timeline

  • 2003 - Android Inc., was founded by Andy Rubin
  • 2005 - Android Inc was Acquired by Google
  • 2008 - Android v1.0
  • 2009 - Android v1.1
  • 2009 - v1.5 (CupCake), v1.6 (Donut)
  • 2009 - v2.0/2.1 (Eclair)
  • 2010 - v2.2 (Froyo), v2.3 (GingerBread)
  • 2011 - v3.0 (HoneyComb)
  • 2011 - v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

Why bother

Because of;

  • 10 Billion apps downloaded
  • Hundred thousand device activations per day
  • 500,000 apps downloaded from Google Play (IOS has roughly same number)

Pros of Android development

  • Low barrier to entry. Android SDK runs on Linux, OSX and Windows
  • Volume. Lots of people are downloading apps *( Easy to get started. Android apps are unlike enterprise apps, they have shorter development time

Things you need to get started

  • Android SDK (downloadable from developer.android.com)
  • A development tool (Eclipse, NetBeans – a programmer’s editor will do)
  • JDK 1.5 or 1.6
  • Apache Ant
  • Java programming background