Google Android Platform: Experience and Inspiration

March 25, 2010

One of the youngest, fastest growing and very hot mobile operating systems is Google Android. In slightly more than two years it has received much support from development communities and interest from enterprises and consumers alike.

Back in 2007, SoftServe worked on the platform when it was just born – with Google Android Development Challenge, where our prototype hit into the Top 100. Now, in 2010, we see plenty of real Android devices that create real business applications for clients.

We are inspired by the experience with an Android platform. While the war between people who like iPhone, BlackBerry, etc., against people who are fans of Android never ends – we tend to like all of the listed platforms. We will not even try to compare the phones themselves; however we will provide some thoughts about them as development platforms for custom applications. Android is newer, and less mature, however its development model is very flexible, powerful and cool. It integrates with Google apps easily and adds value to almost every application.

The Android device that may be in your hand today is the necessary thing, but what do you do if the “real” device is on its way and you need to try something quick with an Android emulator? Android emulator is a gift for developers – it supports almost everything imaginable. Android emulator imitates the typical hardware and software features of a typical mobile device, except that it cannot receive or place actual phone calls. It provides a variety of navigation and control keys, which can be "pressed" using your mouse or keyboard to generate events for your application. With iPhone, there is almost no way to get an application from Apple Store and run it on an emulator. With Android it is possible in a few easy steps.

The steps include:

1. Go to the HTC website where you can find the images/recovery images
2. Download the version (system image only) which you want to run
3. Extract system.img file from zip archive
4. Create an Android Virtual Device (AVD) and put the system.img into the avd directory
5. Start the emulator

After you sign in with a Google account, your phone is ready to use. You now have access to all of the market apps right from your emulator.

Obviously iPhone and Android clients are drawing much attention from business players, and it is very likely that they are the next big thing for your business.