I have had a quick play with Android App Inventor. Here are some initial observations…

It’s implemented using a weird web app and Java app combination that sometimes don’t communicate well and produce errors.
An ‘empty’ app with just a few screen controls produces nearly a 1Mb apk.
Android blocks are not that intuitive for me.
There’s […]

People often ask me what mobile platforms they should support. My Mobile Development Primer lists the main considerations…

Geography - Some platforms are more popular in some countries than others
Capability - Some platforms can’t do some things
Demographics – e.g. Some platforms are used more by enterprise than consumers
Your Capability - What can you program and have […]

There’s a very interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt at WSJ. In particular, Google has longer term ambitions of having "a billion people using Android".
Meanwhile, eMarketer observes how Android users seem to be less willing to pay for apps and suggests that an increasing number of apps will need to be ad-funded.
While a billion […]

One of my most popular posts recently was on problems with the Android Market. One of the issues was the ease with with apps can be pirated. I said…
"Developers need a simple ‘Is this app paid for’ API that would deter a significant amount of piracy. Maybe this could be done at the OS rather […]

I am increasingly doing more work with Javascript (for web runtimes, widgets and PhoneGap apps) and have a new observation. I previously wrote how, when mobile device APIs become much more capable, they will, in turn, expose underlying functional fragmentation.
That was three years ago and device APIs haven’t evolved significantly. Instead, […]

Forbes Insights has a great new free report ‘Retail’s Mobility Imperative’, sponsored by Research In Motion, on retailers’ mobile strategies. The report is based on an ‘an exclusive survey of more than 300 executives at top U.S. retailers (multi-location chains with annual revenues of $100 million-plus).’

There’s an interesting article at Wired Gadget Lab on how bloatware is creeping into Android phones. Bloatware is (usually trial) apps that have been pre-installed by the handset OEM or carrier. You often don’t won’t them and there are usually much better alternatives to be found elsewhere.
This topic came up briefly at Mobile […]