News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on 1 Million Google Android Phones sold by T-Mobile.

Re:1 Million Google Android Phones sold by T-Mobile by SwellJoe on Saturday April 25, 2009 @04:00PM (#579258)
I've just started tinkering with developing for the Android. The whole iPhone development experience (Step 1: Buy a Mac) just wasn't appealing, so I've mostly sat out that market explosion. We did do an iPhone theme for our products using iUI, and luckily, it works pretty much unmodified on the G1 and looks great (and never required Mac ownership, just an iPhone for testing). But, I feel like I can actually be involved and do useful work on Android, without having to drop a few grand just to get a development environment to tinker with.

It's also the perfect phone for a Linux-y developer or sysadmin. Great ssh client, great browser, multi-tasking, good little keypad which I can type dramatically faster on than the iPhone, and as a developer you can access just about everything on the phone, even in apps that aren't approved by Google or T-Mobile. Being able to download a random .apk and install it, without permission or jailbreaking, is a beautiful thing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:1 Million Google Android Phones sold by T-Mobile by mcantelon on Saturday April 25, 2009 @06:34PM (#579359)
A used MacBook is all you need to do iPhone dev and is much cheaper than a few grand.

Nonetheless, I am also not a fan of Apple's control freakishness. I am not willing to invest in development of a product that Apple can disallow at a whim. Nor am I fond of Apple's willingness to use software patents to discourage competition. So Android it is.

iUI/Phonegap are great for cross-platform development and I believe Google's long-term vision to be much more ambitious and interesting than Apple's.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:1 Million Google Android Phones sold by T-Mobile by SwellJoe on Saturday April 25, 2009 @07:32PM (#579414)
Agreed. The Mac expenditure is just the beginning of my hesitation to jump on board the iPhone development bandwagon. With Android, I know I can make my applications available regardless of whether Apple thinks they are worthy of the store. And that one tiny bit of certainty is worth a huge amount to me.

I'm also much more fond of open platforms, but I didn't want to get all "Linux rules, Apple drools" as I reckon it's a personal choice rather than an objective business imperative.

[ Parent | on HN ]