Google just released a software tool to help people write applications for its Android smartphones. The free software, Google App Inventor for Android, will allow anyone, including non-developers, to create their own cell phone applications. As reported in the New York Times, Google has been testing this for a year in schools with sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students, and university undergraduates who are not computer science majors.
While Google App Inventor only works for Android phones, this kind of technology could potentially provide businesses with more cost-effective ways to build customized apps for their target audiences. Will this open technology be a viable competitor for Apple's more controlled iPhone apps?
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1 comment:
How clever! I think this is really opening the door to a floodgate of ingenuity! Perhaps I missed this in the article, but are these apps usable for the creator only, or can they share them with the rest of the Android market? For now, I think it would be smarter to keep it within individual creators to see how many bugs there are. If they are released all over the market and they are causing problems I can only imagine the sort of chaos that would ensue. I think it would be awesome if eventually they are opened to the public, but I think it'd be safer to keep them private for a probationary period.
I can't even think of an app I would make, but I think it's great that now I can try devising one! I really hope they work, because it will be such a shame if the apps are super rudimentary and unreliable. This could really edge out Apple, like the article says. Unless it backfires, of course...let's keep our fingers crossed!
(In case you couldn't tell, I am an Android user and am perhaps biased, but I think this is a riveting concept!)
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