The Android Gets Its HyperCard

theodp writes "Steve Jobs & Co. put the kibosh on easier cellphone development, but Google is giving it a shot. The NY Times reports that Google is bringing Android software development to the masses, offering a software tool starting Monday that's intended to make it easy for people to write applications for its Android phones. The free software, called Google App Inventor for Android, has been under development for a year. User testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not CS majors. The thinking behind the initiative, Google said, is that as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves. It's something Apple should be taking very seriously, advises TechCrunch."

Comments

lawl

[Pojut]

We're Apple...we don't have to care what our competitors do!

Re:lawl

[bsDaemon]

Yeah, but aren't sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and non-CS undergraduates like, 90% of Apple's user base? Sure, the other 10% of us basically use it as a Unix that goes to sleep when you close the lid, wakes up when you open it again, and can actually do power management, but we're also the 10% that don't mind actually writing native code if necessary. Easy cell phone application development will probably be like web development in that its a former "nerd domain" that's socially acceptable and "cool" for non-nerds to play in.

Re:lawl

[Anonymous Coward]

The irony being that they only got where they did in the phone market by infringing a ton of Nokia's patents, and then when they were big enough they decided to break with protocol which had been happily delivering advancement for consumers for a while in the phone market by suing others for daring to infringe their patents. But I guess fanboys can't remember anything earlier than the last Apple press release?

Android needs a working MARKET, not more apps.

[pucko]

Android Market still feels like a rough beta-version due to two big reasons.

* Paid applications is _still_ not released in many countries.

* Way too much spam, hidden advertisement or illegal content.

More apps is not the solution, better quality is.

put the kabosh?

[falcon5768]

On what? iPhone/Pad developments so easy 8-9 year olds are doing it. Oh you mean easier for people who dont want to spend money on the platform to use the tools. Well then thats not easier thats CHEAPER. Big difference.