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September 03, 2009

Google Android: The party is over

Google's smartphone OS is open source, hardware-agnostic, and developer-friendly. So how come its developers seem so unhappy?

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Judging by buzz alone, the Palm Pre seems to be current the hot smartphone among developers. It's no surprise, considering how much effort went into its developer platform. Palm is banking that a strong developer community will build a grassroots movement behind the Pre that can drag the company back from the brink of obscurity.

But Palm wasn't always the mobile developers' darling. Back when the Pre was but a glimmer in Palm's eye, Google Android was the smartphone OS du jour. Like Palm, Google has taken the value of a strong developer community to heart, releasing the Android code as open source and offering developer previews of its latest technologies. It even went as far as to give out free handsets to developers at this year's Google I/O conference.

[ iPhone developers are frustrated too by the Apple App Store's "ayatollahs" and slow bug-fix updates, as InfoWorld's Bill Snyder explains. | Considering Palm Pre development? Read the InfoWorld Test Center's Mojo SDK review first. ]

But all is not well in Android-land. A year after the platform's launch, second-generation Android handsets are now available to U.S. consumers, but they're hardly leaping off the store shelves. According to the research firm Canalys, Google Android commands only about a 3 percent share of the smartphone OS market, while Apple's iPhone has shown an astounding 627 percent growth in the past year.

No surprise that Android developers are starting to grumble. Google is learning the hard way that building a developer community isn't enough; you'd better also have the goods to back it up.

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sov 3-Sep-09 4:46am
"Judging by buzz alone, the Palm Pre seems to be current the hot smartphone among developers." Where is this coming from? Android may have only 1/15th handsets sold compared to the iPhone which btw. partially explains slow app sales but it still sold alot more than Palm. So how do you compare those 8000 applications on Android to those... what is it ... 50 apps on palm pre and than write crap like this? "But Google isn't likely to broaden its market if it continues to alienate software developers." Are you serious? This article is more than one year old.
ajbraun 3-Sep-09 8:27am
A seriously flawed look. you are declaring Android dead on the eve of a rollout of multiple significant new products from Multiple vendors. It is true that there is a risk of android fragmenting. (certainly more than the single design iphone/itouch) but I think we can expect Android rapidly increase market presence which will in turn make the mark for third party developers
PastorB 3-Sep-09 9:27am
My single biggest issue with the Android platform is that Google has not stepped to the plate and done any kind of serious marketing. Even T-Mobile's weak marketing just shows a picture of the phone without any real hint at how powerful the phone really is. I would stand the features of the HTC phones against Apple, Blackberry and Pre side by side and the HTC phones running Android would win, hands-down. Unfortunatly unless you get some backbone and tell the average joe what it is capable of doing only a handful of geeks will use the androids, hence only a limited subset of developers will spend the time to learn and support a new SDE. And the applications will remain weak. Google! You need to step up and market this to the world, and not just to tech magazines. You have the better product, tell someone!
whitemice 3-Sep-09 9:57am
Why are people unhappy? BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DEVICES AND NO CARRIER SUPPORT. I seriously wonder if anyone, even Google, really cares if Android succeeds. Google has clout, Google has cash, why are there no devices? Android is now 1yr+ from its debut. They have one more significant competitor than they did a year ago - the Palm Pre. So now it is Android with zero market share and next to no carrier support vs. iPhone, Blackberry, and the Pre. That doesn't look good.
Wired-Guy 3-Sep-09 10:21am
Ok Neil, Not a bad article, but around about paragraph 8 or 9 is where I expected you to include a quote from an actual Android software developer that you called on the phone, or even emailed for a comment. Doesn't anyone do any real journalism any more?
CatDaaaady 3-Sep-09 11:04am
I have been developing my own app for android for the past few months. I must say the API documentation is pretty bare. I believe most of the api is covered. But just not very deeply. It is a big frustration sometimes. But I have no plans to leave. And I have a few more apps I would like to try and develop. :-)
RandyMorris 3-Sep-09 3:38pm
This guy Niel is either trying to provoke a response, or I am sorry, he is a tool. I will be more than happy to help you (niel) understand the technology community if you would like. Ignorance can be forgiven because it can be fixed, stupidity is not because it is chosen.
varvar 29-Oct-09 2:43pm
I agree with the columnist and many of the comments--Android's documentation is scanty--I paid good money for the developer's handbook which is more or less useless [cannot hold a candle to the superb documentation that has been the Apple hallmark]--the SDK is full of arcane mumbo jumbo and apparently supports a subset i repeat a subset of Java with inconsistent syntax and definitions? Why bother, Google could go out and acquire the Revolution platform---a slick internet-savvy client server GUI platform and SDK risen phoenix-like from the ashes of Apple's Hypercard see http://ww.runrev.com
varvar 29-Oct-09 2:44pm
the correct link to Revolution is http://www.runrev.com

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