Friday, 27 April 2012

Android Application Development - Tools and Technologies

Android is busy conquering the mobile application development market and there are a huge number of companies who have moved on to mobile application development by landing up with Android app development projects. Since Android is an open source platform, the popularity is growing steadily and there are many mobile application developers who are trying to make the best use of the mobile platform. Since most of the startups in the field of mobile app development rely on free app development tools and technologies, it is easy for them to take up Android-based development projects for meeting customers' demands.

Mobile developers who create Android apps rely on Java language mainly though the Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) is used consistently for writing applications in Python, Perl and other environments. With the recent developments in the platform with Android 2.3 and Android 4.0, the developers obtained an opportunity to start development of apps in Android as the latest versions support Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR technologies.

Android SDK is provided to developers for the app development process along with the environment for writing, testing and debugging mobile apps.

The Eclipse IDE is helpful for a quick and easy Android application development process. One can customize it using the Android Development Tools Plugin which thus helps in enhancing the quality and quantity of Android mobile applications.

Android Emulator ensures that the testing and debugging process using Android device-emulators is done smoothly which helps developers to create an environment which simulates the features of the OS as well as the mobile devices.

Android app developers utilize the Android framework APIs and take advantage of a plethora of C/C++ libraries. The libraries include System C library, SQlite, SGL graphics engine, 3D libraries and some others technologies.

Mobile app developers who work Android apps development can sell off their mobile solutions in the Android Market and even publicize it via a website. Android Marketplace is basically an application store which was launched by Google for Android-based apps distribution. The apps are created and distributed by developers worldwide and the store now boasts of more than 200,000 Android apps which prove that it is second to the iOS and is fast catching up in popularity.

The Android platform has extensively expanded its wings in the mobile app development market and has gained substantially too for tablet PCs too. With the advent of the offshore software development market, the mobile market has vouched for outsourcing of the process which has resulted in drastic returns in productivity and costs.