Cogitas Blog:
Google Android,
Common Lisp,
programming
and web design.
Though published back in March, I have just come across this great article explaining how Eddie Kim is making over $10,000 a month from the sales of his Google Android app CarLocator.
A great read for all Android developers as this represents the first official success story for an indie Google Android developer. Well done Eddie 
AdMob is an ad network for web internet and mobile phone applications and they publish a metrics report every month. Until March, the #1 operating system for smartphones in the USA was the iPhone but in March 2010, Android took over, with a few percents lead.
You can find the report here and the actual graph is on page 9 of the report. The figures are based on ad requests – that is, every time someone goes to a mobile web page or app that displays an AdMob ad, AdMob adds one to the counter. AdMob is one of the biggest provider of ads for the mobile market so this gives a good snapshot of the current market.
The iPhone still has the lead on the international market but Android is slowing eating away at its share of the market.
Of course, as an Android developer, I am very pleased
My next Google Android app will be a RSS Reader and naturally, I have to brush up on my XML knowledge so I have picked up the excellent Java and XML
OK, I have to admit here, I am planning a desktop Java app and I thought a few weeks ago that I would use xml for the data. This is partially why I was keen to experiment with programming a RSS Reader for Google Android, as my first foray into xml parsing. The other reason for the RSS Reader is that I have come to rely on mine (I use Google Reader) and I prefer using it on my work computer, which has a bigger screen. This got me wondering: how to create a user-friendly RSS Reader interface for a small screen? This was all the challenge I needed to get me started 
So far, I have only read up on SAX and I have started playing around with it – it does what I imagined it should do, so I’m pretty pleased about it. I’m thoroughly enjoying working with XML but as I’m only starting out, I’m sure some more advanced programmers will be quick to damper my enthusiasm.
So, for you, does XML live up to its potential? Or is it just another data format you have to contend with?
After many delays due to a virus on my Windows XP computer and wasting time trying to fix it, then installing Ubuntu then trying to figure out why Eclipse kept crashing on Ubuntu (problem got fixed after running the update manager), I am very pleased to say that I have finally finished “Big Fingers Keyboard” – as you may have guessed it, it is a soft keyboard for people with big fingers…
I’ve learnt a lot developing this one – I have experimented with threads (though the feature using threads has been kept off v1.0 as too unstable at the moment), I have learnt how to develop a service instead of an application, and I have applied object oriented programming concepts. This is the first time I developed an app “thinking like an object” and while I am sure I have strayed back into the “thinking like a computer” territory from time to time, I am overall very happy with my experience.
On to my next Google Android app now, which will be a RSS reader… hopefully released sometime in May!
Over the least couple of years, the rise of Google in the field of programming and web development tools has been quite spectacular.
Google Android is gaining ground in the smart mobile phone market, Google App Engine and Google Web Toolkit are helping Java and Python programmers develop web apps, Google has established its annual conference Google I/O as the conference all programmers should attend (sadly, I cannot but I would dearly like to), not to mention the success of its Google Maps API and many other tools available for programmers.
Like many other programmers, I am very excited about their tools but I can’t help asking myself: do we rely too much on Google? Only the future will tell but I fear that despite all of Google’s official good intentions, its real aim is to create a market monopoly that Microsoft can only dream of – and then, it will be able to bleed all programmers and users dry.