OT: Android Dev Questions

[Mark Phillips]

Gmail seems to have a problem with inline answers today, so I will add them
here...


   1.

   What is the life expectancy of Android? Will it be around 15 years from
   now?

   I haven't a clue. I hope I am around 15 years from now! ;)
   2.

   How hard is it to upgrade a phone to a newer version of Android?

   If your carrier wants to upgrade the phone, then they will send you an
   upgrade package OTA and your phone will upgrade. If you want to upgrade
   manually, then you will have to root your phone and apply the upgrade
   manually. Just google for your phone type and the upgrade you want.
   Generally speaking, US carriers don't want to spend the time upgrading
   phones - they want you to buy a new one because they subsidize part of the
   cost to get you to buy a plan. In Europe, you pay the full price for the
   phone, so you can upgrade it as you wish. As a result, the versions change
   slowly - 86.7% of the phones out there are at version 2.3.3, and version 4
   was just released. This percentage would be even higher if it weren't for
   tablets (versions 3 and 4 added a lot of tablet stuff).


   1.

   Are there any compatibility issues?

   Yes and no. Some older early Android hardware will have problems with
   the newer android versions, but for the most part they are supposed to be
   backward compatible. The big moving target is screen resolution - ie
   tablets versus larger screen phones. It takes some ui redesign to move from
   a small screen to a giant one, and to be compatible with all of them.
   However, the underlying non-ui parts are the same.
   2.

   How does one monetize Android application development skills?

   Write a killer app and sell it. ;) The google market is huge, so it is
   harder to get noticed (ie rated and found), and there is no easy way to
   talk to anyone at google about issues with your account. However, other
   markets exists - amazon looks promising, but I believe they take a larger
   cut, but provide better customer support. Of course, if your app is free,
   it does not matter.
   3.

   Where can I find quality used Android phones?

   I am not sure what quality means, but in the usual places - craig's
   list, ebay, etc. Friends as well.....it does not take much time to download
   an app run it and then remove it. The Android SDK comes with a good
   emulator, so you can catch lots of issues with that tool. Again, the
   biggest issue I have found is varying screen resolutions and making sure
   everything looks right. The emulator helps, and I have not found a need to
   have every phone on the market in my possession to test. There are also
   testing services you can use - some free and some for pay.
   4.

   What device would you recommend I use to learn Android development –
   Phone, Tablet, Simulator....?

   Start with the SDK and the emulator. Also, take a look at this page -
   http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html to see where to
   target your development. Then read the android developer docs - they are
   very very good. Depending on how you learn, you may want to pick up a book
   or two, but they are totally out of date except for the basics. Another
   good source is http://commonsware.com/mmurphy. You can pay for the
   e-book and get all the updates and changes for a year. Mark Murphy hangs
   out in the developer forum and provides very good answers to questions,
   especially for newbies.

Hope that helps.....and no, I have not created any killer apps yet so I can
retire on the millions in royalty checks from google.......so YMMV!

Good luck!

Mark

On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 6:27 AM, keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Posted to PLUG, TFUG, AzPHP
>
>
>  I wondering about trends. Currently I make my living as a LAMP
> developer. The market seems strong and lots of main stream apps are built
> with PHP. So I expect the market to continue to be strong for 10 – 15
> years. That is the time frame I am interested in.
>
>
>  Things are moving rather fast now. Cheap hardware is now a reality. It
> looks like a smart phone has more CPU and RAM than the laptop I bought 10
> year ago, and the desktop I bought 7 year ago. I think I saw a smart phone
> that had a dual core 1.5ghtz processor and a gig of RAM. My first 2
> computers didn't even have hard drives......
>
>
>  I'm intrigued by Android development. Seems there is really only one
> option and that is the Android SDK that is modified Java. I don't find Java
> to be intuitive, however I can live with it.
>
>
>  My main question has to do with compatibility. A friend tells me he
> thinks there are comparability issues between manufactures since they
> modify Android to met their needs and the lack of standards. After
> exchanging emails, it sounds like writing Android code is like writing
> JavaScript that needs to run in all the currently available browsers. We
> have JavaScript solutions – MooTools, jQuery … etc. However in the short
> time I've been looking at Android development, I have not found any
> information on compatibility issues (however I have not search either).
>
>
>  I have lots of questions.
>
>
>
>    1.
>
>    What is the life expectancy of Android? Will it be around 15 years
>    from now?
>    2.
>
>    How hard is it to upgrade a phone to a newer version of Android?
>    3.
>
>    Are there any compatibility issues?
>    4.
>
>    How does one monetize Android application development skills?
>    5.
>
>    Where can I find quality used Android phones?
>    6.
>
>    What device would you recommend I use to learn Android development –
>    Phone, Tablet, Simulator....?
>
>
>  Thank you so much for all your insight.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------
> Keith Smith
> ---------------------------------------------------
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