Google's Android

Have you heard of the Galaxy S3, or the HTC Droid DNA. You know the phones with all those cool widgets on the screen. The phones that look so much more complicated than the iPhone. Those phones all have the android operating system. So lets look at Android.

What is Android? 

Android is a open-source operating system that combines parts of many other open-source projects. Basically google created a free system that was made up of other google projects. Since it is free, many big companies are using it or starting to use it. To name a few: Motorola, Asus, Samsung, HTC, NVIDIA.

What does this mean though as a developer? It basically means that you have complete access to the source code that is running on the phone. Basically, I have access to Jelly Bean or whatever they call it now. This is a good thing because you can better understand how they created this system. Since so many companies use Android in their phones, your application becomes more spread out which means more money for you, either through advertisements or through the Google Play store. 

Why Android? 

1. It is really cheap to distribute your applications. Google gives the software for free and you only have to pay $50 to develop as many applications as you like. Google only takes 20% of any profit made on an app. 20% percent may seem like a lot, but it is a lot better then apple, where apple takes 30% and you have to pay a 100 dollars a year. 
2. You have the freedom to do whatever you like. Unlike apple, where you cannot use private API's, which means you can't use other people stuff. Google, on the other hand, encourages, so that you can release applications really fast. 
3. You have the freedom to work with other people. Google allows you to give your code to other people once it have been published. This is really good because you can keep improving and making other software. Apple again makes you sign an NDA which is basically a contract saying you cannot give your source away to anybody and if caught you lose your right to develop for apple. 
4. Every cellphone carrier in the world has android based phones. Which is a huge difference, you applications can be seen across the world, where a iPhone application will be primarily be seen in the United States.

There are a few major drawbacks for actually programming android applications. They are a pain to make. Unlike apple, where you can actually see how your design looks, with android it is all speculation. You have to always change numbers to move one object down. Another thing, with Android if you want to just put a simple website in your app, instead of just copying the URL, you have actually go to the source and convert it from HTML to XML, again a huge pain.