- Completely open source, this isn't really a direct advantage to application developers but it does promote a healthy community that can drive future development.
- Developers get 100% of the profit from application sales, compare that one to another company we know.
- Applications can freely read/write to the SD card, inter-application sharing solved.
- The Android platform allows multiple apps to run at the same time.
- Developers can now write in pure C/C++ using the NDK (native development kit). Music apps require a lot of CPU power to process in realtime and this just wasn't feasible with Java, the NDK solves this.
- Tons of phones to choose from, and this is only going to get better with time.
- The Nexus One, this phone runs at 1GHz and has 512MB of ram, and a higher resolution of 800x480 with muti-touch support.
- Apple finally has some much needed competition.
- The Android market place currently has very little music software, so it's a good time to get in.
- Apps are instantly approved as well as updates, this make the update process much less of a nightmare and promotes more frequent updates.
I think that Chris has a point, and these 10 are good reasons to take a long serious look at Android. My only issue, and not just with Android, but with mobile platforms in general is the lack of decent PDA hardware. Manufacturers seem to only want to make smartphones, and that means that people who want to experiment with a platform for music have a much more difficult time getting in.
I'd really like to get an Android device, but I'm not going to buy another phone and run two at once. The Archos tablet is good, but not enough.
My hope is that more MIDs or PDAs or whatever you want to call them start appearing and making it easier to get into a platform without being tied to a contract.
I'm so glad Chris has taken an interest in Android, as Jasuto Pro is one of my most-used iPhone apps (alongside SunVox and Noise.io). I hope this becomes a trend, and we see more music apps for Android.
ReplyDeleteDiversity of devices can be an issue, but if an app is made with certain hardware requirements in mind, then those requirements can simply be stated. Developers have done this with desktop apps for decades, so it shouldn't be a problem with mobile apps.
Also, PalmSounds, there are a number of non-phone Android devices in the pipeline, including the Dell Mini 5 (codename "Streak"), among others. Keep an eye out for these.