Google’s new “App Inventor” is a game-changer
July 12th, 2010 by Tom 8 CommentsThere are now 10,000 Android developers, as opposed to 40,000 for the iPhone. And Google is gearing up to release App Inventor, a tool for nontechnical Android app developers that is strikingly similar to the Scratch programming environment for kids. Meanwhile Android phones themselves are catching up quickly, although the iPhone 4 remains the coolest thing around.
Like many others I’m sure, I considered developing a tool like this and abandoned it after coming to grips with Apple’s harsh policies on the subject of alternative programming environments:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
Google’s reliance on crowdsourced quality control for apps isn’t perfect but it is beginning to add up to a real difference in spirit. As Android phone sales grow, making development for it an even more viable proposition, content creators will eventually vote with their feet for the platform where they feel most welcome and walk away from the walled garden.
I have an iPhone and I love it, in part because of Apple’s excellent quality control in the core applications. If Apple’s competition here were as bad as their competition in the MP3 player market— companies with almost no grasp of design— I wouldn’t doubt the outcome for a moment. But Android also has quality designers at play. Google’s approach to design may be a bit plodding and obsessed with A/B testing, but it does get results.
Apple knows they must continue to release cutting-edge hardware, but they don’t seem to grasp what it takes to maintain a welcoming developer platform once there are viable alternatives in the game.
I’m going out on a limb here: a year from now there will be as many Android apps as iPhone apps. 18 months from now Android phone sales will surpass iPhone sales. Apple will still have the sexiest phones, and will still command a premium price for them. But inside two years the iPhone will occupy a niche similar to that of the Macbook.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Developers will go where the money is, not necessarilly where try feel welcome. The Android Market has yet to prove very profitable for small developers the way the App Store has. Also, how are iPhones sold at a premium price? Last I checked they were fairly comparable to Android devices.
I am very currious about the level of complexity this tool will allow for non-programmers, will they be able to create an app more complex than the “pet the kitty” app shown in the demo?
July 13th, 2010 at 3:32 am
As Chris says I’m not sure about the iPhone being sold at a premium and I can definitively imagine a future where Apple takes the iAd route which would mean that they need as many customers as possible. This is, as you say, not the case with MacBooks, which absolutely are sold at a premium and lives on their high profit margin.
July 13th, 2010 at 7:07 am
For now App Inventor is mostly symbolic of Google’s commitment to a more open platform for developers, who can choose not only App Inventor but many other independent tools. Apple pretty much requires you to learn a language used hardly anywhere else, or lump it. Whether App Inventor itself will be powerful enough to build complex apps is an interesting question and I’ll be curious to see it. But it raises an interesting point about the iPhone app store: a huge number of iPhone apps are no more sophisticated than “Pet the Kitty.”
It’s true that Android phones currently command a premium as well, in the sense that they are not “free with a two year plan” any more than the iPhone is. But I expect that to change as volume goes up. There will be commodity Android smartphones included with two-year calling plans and the like. Those phones will be 80%, 90% of an iPhone. People will wonder why they should bother with anything else.
Mattias makes a good point about iAd, and one imagines that Apple sees the iPhone dominating its market the way the iPod does, but a smartphone is supposed to be a more flexible device than an iPod… thanks in part to the app craze that Apple created… and they don’t have the most inviting platform for building apps.
As for profitability, with Android’s numbers growing so quickly I think it’s much too early to declare their app market unprofitable for developers.
July 13th, 2010 at 11:22 am
I hesitate to disagree with you about Android phones outselling iPhones in 18 months simply because there are more hardware manufacturers developing on the platform. This will probably be a lot like the commodity PC days, by which I mean a race to the bottom.
That last 10-20% you mention is what makes the iPhone so special, the QA and polish is what Apple has over the other guys, but it remains to be seen if that’s enough to stay on top.
Anyway, I’m happy all this competition is going on, remember what “smart phones” were like only 3 years ago?
July 16th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Android phones already outsold iPhones in Q1 of 2010 (Google: android phone sales iphone sales). I’m sure there are still more iPhones in the hands of consumers, though that too will change soon.
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
I agree that there will soon be more Android apps than iPhone apps but not just because of this App Inventor. It’s because Android apps are written in Java and there are many times more Java programmers than Objective C. I tried developing my first Android App and it was really easy. I know Java but don’t have much experience with it. Even with very little experience it was really easy because there are many examples available and many good tutorials on Youtube.
The App Inventor, on the other hand requires no Java knowledge, which means anyone can create a simple but lame app. App Inventor may cause App market to be flooded with low quality and mostly useless apps. It will be quantity over quality, which is bad, in my opinion
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Keep in mind that the iPhone app market is also flooded with lame apps in spite of the difficulty of Objective C (:
It’s true that Java is a more common skill. However, Android now also supports C/C++ programming for critical sections of code because, surprise surprise, garbage collection and good gaming performance are just not compatible. People complain about memory management in Objective C but it does allow you to write a fast game. Nevertheless Google’s decision to allow some C/C++ to be mixed in probably permits the best of both worlds from a performance and coder-friendliness standpoint.
August 10th, 2010 at 10:11 am
As Salas points out, it looks like it may have happened already:
http://gigaom.com/2010/08/02/android-sales-overtake-iphone-in-the-u-s/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OmMalik+%28GigaOM%29