I've been going back and forth on this for months, but I think I'm finally going to give Android a shot. I don't necessarily feel the need to, but if the day ever comes when I'm developing full-time for clients I want to have at least some experience with it. So I know there's a ton of useful documentation which I plan on digging into tomorrow, but I thought I would throw out a couple of questions specifically related to Android development from an iOS developers standpoint -- 1. Resolutions - With iOS it's pretty simple..there's basically 5 different resolutions to target. I know there is a huge number of different Android devices, so is there a specific resolution that people usually target? I would have no idea where to start with this - how exactly do you know your background is going to look good on one screen and not cut off on another screen? 2. Crashes - Do Android apps crash as much as iOS apps or is the platform more stable? I guess the answer to this would dictate whether or not I would actually have to go out and get an Android device for testing. 3. Approval - I'm under the impression that it is a lot easier to get an app approved for Google Play than it is for the App Store - is this true? 4. Ads - Which ad provider do you guys find to have the highest eCPM/Revenue on Android? That about sums it up, and here's one more question - the app I have in mind to make is a quiz app that is already available for the iPhone. Since all of the content and art is good to go, how long should it take me to get it functional and submitted?

Hi @Absentia, On the Android side of it that I'm experienced in: 1. Yes there are different resolutions. Here are the different sizes: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html 2. My published Apps have never crashed. 3. Yes takes about 2-4 hours for approval but usually about 2. 4. Too many debates on this question. 5. Depends on the art and you but not long. LA

I'm certainly no expert on Android, but here's some thoughts: 1) You have no idea what the resolution will be on the end-user device. That's probably the biggest downfall for Android apps - and it's huge. There's two basic strategies that I know about. The first is to plan for virtually every resolution. That requires getting a list of known Android devices on the market with their resolutions, and adding a ton of code to account for each. Something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density The other strategy is to use relative layouts. (i.e., use left/center/right alignments, stretch things to device width, etc.) I think this is probably more common, and certainly easier. But, it has much less design ability. 2) My experience is that Android apps crash way more often than iOS apps do. And that's without even using ARC for iOS. 3) Approval is definitely easier for Android. I don't think there's even a review process in place. Simply upload the apk and it will be live and searchable in a few hours at most.

Okay - LA's link is much better than mine!

I am increasingly interested in the android app store. A couple of additional questions if I may, - Do you need an android device to test on or can you get away with the simulator - How are the apps managed, sales, etc - such as an iTC equivalent - Do you need a dev account similarly to with Apple Thanks for the info :)

Hey @Alex@TM, You can ask other developers on here to test it on their device. Android emulator is good but not stable enough to test before submitting. The Apps are on your Android Developer Console and easily managed there but I don't do ads so I cannot really give you advice there. Developer Account is all you need and it's 25.00. You only need one account verses IOS two accounts. Hope this helps some. LA

Cool, thanks.

Awesome! Thank a lot for the responses so far.. @LA - That link is just what I needed @Chris1 - Wow, that's awesome the submission process is so simple - I assume that makes fixing bugs a MUCH easier job for the Android (i.e. you don't have to endure 7 days of horrible reviews until your update is approved) Here's another question - A while ago I was interested in messing around with Android so I decided to download eclipse. I found the Eclipse site to be a bit confusing and I'm not sure if I currently have the version of Eclipse needed for app development. When I click "About Eclipse" it says this ---- "Eclipse Java EE IDE for Web Developers Version: Indigo Service Release 2" --- is this what I should be using?

@Absentia, There is a new bundle out that makes Eclipse easier to install. @GoNorthWest did a great video tutorial on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFGF3_r9YIA LA

Great stuff. Do you look at the most used handset for apps and create the app around that? Does artwork etc upscale and downscale automatically depending on the device it's being run on? Thanks

Best to start with the default of Google 2.2 Android 8 and go from there. There are so mant different versions of Android out there so difficult to target the most used. You have to design to each screen size in which there are low-high-medium-xhigh density. Buzztouch automaticaly makes these folders for you in the package. LA

I made a rare impulse buy today and came home with a shiny new Nexus 7. No going back now...

Very nice @Absentia! LA

Does anyone know if you need to install the JDK on a mac? Regards.

Does anyone know if you need to install the JDK on a mac? Regards. (double post, no idea why! sorry)