Android™ Tablet Application Development For Dummies®

Chapter 1

Developing Spectacular Android Tablet Applications

In This Chapter

• Seeing reasons to develop Android Tablet apps
• Starting with the basics of Android programming
• Working with the hardware
• Getting familiar with the software

Google's Android platform has taken off. Since the first Android Application Development For Dummies book was released, Android has gained a tremendous amount of traction in regard to market share in the smartphone space. When first released, Android was considered the underdog of the mobile field but is now considered one of the juggernauts. Google acquired the Android project in 2005 (see the sidebar “The roots of Android” l4ater in this chapter) to ensure that a mobile operating system (OS) could be created and maintained in an open platform. Google continues to pump time and resources into the Android project, which has already proved to be beneficial. As of January 2011, Android reported to have 53 percent of the market share, which proves that Android has gone from a blip on the proverbial mobile radar to a major provider for most mobile consumers. In less than three years, Android has gone from zero to hero in the mobile world and its only going to get larger with each new Android tablet that gets released!

Tablet applications are the talk of the town, and companies around the world cannot wait to release their next groundbreaking application. Newspapers have recently been replaced with tablet applications and subscription-based models, and ...