I'm trying to get started and develop a simple app for my tablet. Unfortunately, most of the examples I can find on the web fail to compile and run or don't explain anything.

I'm new to eclipse, java and android and need something like the demo apps Delphi 1 came with.

Can anyone help me? Either source or a website I haven't found after many hours of trying.

I must say that with my current experience (about 2 weeks so far) I'm tremendously impressed that the android developers flog their stuff so cheap even considering the size of the market.

Roy Lambert

On Tue, 6 Dec 2011 14:43:15 +0000, Roy Lambert <roy@lybster.me.uk>
wrote:

>flog their stuff so cheap even considering the size of the market.

I am just wondering why developers love to waist time or work like
slaves producing freebies.

temp


If like me they're hobby programmers it doesn't matter to much. However, there do seem to be a number of professionals out there as well and as long as they get thousands of downloads at a £ or 2 a time they'll be happy as long as the development isn't to hard.

For me so far its a nightmare. Learning Delphi wasn't this hard!

Roy Lambert

On Tue, 6 Dec 2011 15:58:14 +0000, Roy Lambert <roy@lybster.me.uk>
wrote:

>temp
>
>
>If like me they're hobby programmers it doesn't matter to much. However, there do seem to be a number of professionals out there as well and as long as they get thousands of downloads at a £ or 2 a time they'll be happy as long as the development isn't to hard.
>
>For me so far its a nightmare. Learning Delphi wasn't this hard!

You are so right. My point was that developing for Android to earn
some money is extremely difficult. Even for Windows is not easy. Some
people are now rushing to develop for iSomething but 99.9% fail.

JP

Roy,

Sorry can't help with the android dev stuff. I played with it about a
year and a half ago but then we decided to focus on apple platform and
never have looked back.

As i recall android dev guide was not bad and seems to be still at this
link:
http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html

I personally like a book to get started quickly on a new platform - i
find it faster initially than doing online samples and such. Once you
have a reasonable base then samples and blogs and experimenting adds
value quickly.

Do a trial of something like OReilly Safari Online books or see if there
are good (e)books on sale, especially at this time of year.
I just got an email today from Apress that they have a 40% off sale -
meaning many ebooks will be in $15-20 range.


Also the variety of hardware and OS versions is also quite crazy -
unless you plan to target specific device you'd ought to stick with
Gingerbread (or maybe even Froyo if targetign older phones).

As to the price of product : Apple effect. The $0.99 music and now apps
has really set the expectations for low price and the number of apps
available makes it very hard to stand out and sell for much more. I know
i'guilty of this myself - at $1-2 i don't really care but at $4+ the app
would really have to be have some long term value for me.

For business type apps i would suggest you give away your mobile app but
make it dependent on server side or service so you can get some revenue
from selling the back-end stuff.

Raul



On 12/6/2011 9:43 AM, Roy Lambert wrote:
> I'm trying to get started and develop a simple app for my tablet. Unfortunately, most of the examples I can find on the web fail to compile and run or don't explain anything.
>
> I'm new to eclipse, java and android and need something like the demo apps Delphi 1 came with.
>
> Can anyone help me? Either source or a website I haven't found after many hours of trying.
>
> I must say that with my current experience (about 2 weeks so far) I'm tremendously impressed that the android developers flog their stuff so cheap even considering the size of the market.
>
> Roy Lambert

Raul


Thanks for the info. I already found http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html and managed to follow the instructions to get eclipse and the SDK installed (the emulator start up is like watching paint dry) but don't find the tutorials much use.

I'm not bothered about charging because what I want to do will be like much of my Windows development - for my use only.

I had a look at OReilly Safari Online and it meets most of my criteria of being a horrible site

The only good thing is it did suggest a title I looked up on Amazon (it was about 40% cheaper on Amazon) <vbg>

Roy Lambert

<< I am just wondering why developers love to waist time or work like slaves
producing freebies. >>

I agree.  I've seen people on Hacker News talking about slaving away on a
web app, having it become *very* popular, and only making a couple thousand
a month because they do a "freemium" model.

Personally, I think it's a mistake to give away a product for free if you
intend to also sell it.  It takes you out of the software business and puts
you into the "conversion" business, where you're constantly fixated on
trying to get people to pay for something that they currently use for free.
It's a losing battle because most of the basic functional aspects of the
software will be in the free version.  If they weren't, then nobody would
use it, period.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Raul,

<< As to the price of product : Apple effect. The $0.99 music and now apps
has really set the expectations for low price and the number of apps
available makes it very hard to stand out and sell for much more. I know
i'guilty of this myself - at $1-2 i don't really care but at $4+ the app
would really have to be have some long term value for me. >>

It's a shame, but it seems like mobile developers have really backed
themselves into a corner in terms of pricing.  They now have the worst of
both worlds - *all* of the pricing is very low, so you can't use that as a
differentiator, and the market is awash in apps.  So, in order to set
yourself apart, you need to spend some serious cash on marketing and hope to
recoup it on the back end, or give away a free version.  It seems like a
recipe for failure.

Of course, markets have a way of straightening these types of
pricing/quality issues out on their own, so we'll have to see what happens
once the mobile market starts to mature.  Maybe someone will figure out that
the way to make your product stand out is to charge $20 for it.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

>Of course, markets have a way of straightening these types of
>pricing/quality issues out on their own, so we'll have to see what happens
>once the mobile market starts to mature. Maybe someone will figure out that
>the way to make your product stand out is to charge $20 for it.

There are already some apps like that but they tend to be in specialist areas (eg satnav). As you say the problem is the vast number of freebies out there. For example I've downloaded three free games which work well so I'm unlikely to download any paid ones of the same type.

Maybe a lot of the people doing the development are like me - hobbyists. That way a couple of thousand a month (dollars or pounds) is good enough.

Roy Lambert

On Wed, 7 Dec 2011 16:43:27 -0500, "Tim Young [Elevate Software]"
<timyoung@elevatesoft.com> wrote:

>you into the "conversion" business, where you're constantly fixated on
>trying to get people to pay for something that they currently use for free.
>It's a losing battle because most of the basic functional aspects of the
>software will be in the free version.  If they weren't, then nobody would
>use it, period.

I don't believe either.
I use a few of those because free is always good, if I need
more/different features I will search for another software that has
them and is also free. Only when there is no free alternative I will
buy. I think most people follows this strategy.
But, in my opinion free software is banalizing the industry and it
should not be banalized because it envolves a lot of work. Hence, my
statement that I don't understand why developers love to waist time or
work like slaves producing freebies.

JP