Android 101 Writing And Publishing Android Applications

Android 101:
Writing and
Publishing Android
Applications

@romannurik
May 2010

Agenda

1. Writing your app 2. Publishing your app

  Platform features   Registering

  Surfacing your UI   Targeting

  Intents   Buying & Selling

  Speech, Location,   Other distribution types
Sensors
  Featuring and promotion
  Native development

Android

  Android is an open platform, and it’s
open source
  Develop mostly in Java and XML
–  C/C++ for Native development (NDK)

  Replace the core apps with your own
  Source code available
–  SDK and core apps
–  http://source.android.com
4

Multiple Devices, Single App

  Shipping 60K+ devices per day
  More devices = more business
  SDK supports:
–  Many screen sizes/resolutions
–  Screen density independence

5

Multiple Devices, Single App

~120 / ldpi ~160 / mdpi ~240 / hdpi

Small screen
~ ≤ 3.0”

Normal screen
~ ≤ 4.0”

Large screen
~ ≥ 4.8”

6

Screen Size & Density Breakdown

Note: This data is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed
Android Market within a 14-day period ending on May 17th 2010

http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/screens.html
7

Application Components

An Android application is actually a
collection of several components, each
defined in AndroidManifest.xml

8

Application Components

  Activities
  Services
  Content Providers
  Broadcast Receivers

9

Surfacing your UI

  Launcher icons
  Status bar notification
  Widgets
  Quick Search Box
integration
  Live Folders
  Live Wallpapers
10

Surfacing your UI

  Widgets
integration
  Live Folders
11

Surfacing your UI

  Widgets
integration
  Live Folders
12

Surfacing your UI

  Widgets
integration
  Live Folders
13

Surfacing your UI

  Widgets
integration
  Live Folders
14

Surfacing your UI

  Widgets
integration
  Live Folders
15

Concurrent Applications

  Users can multitask
–  Apps get paused, not closed

  Background services
–  Invisible apps with no GUI
–  Unobtrusive event notifications
–  Listen to music and check
email simultaneously

16

Intents

  Intents “link” activities, services, and
receivers together
  Intents consists of
–  An action (i.e. ACTION_VIEW)
–  Categories (i.e. CATEGORY_DEFAULT)
–  A URI (i.e. content://contacts/people/123)
–  “Extras” metadata

  Intents can also be to hard-coded class
names (com.foo.FooActivity)
17

Inter-App Communication

  Apps can communicate with each other
by providing and consuming each
other’s Intents

Application Application
A “Intent” B

18

Example: Inter-App Communication

19

Speech Input

  Enables voice-to-text capability
  Invoke via IME or Intent
  English, Mandarin Chinese & Japanese
  Integrate with 3rd party speech
recognition service

20

Example: Speech Input

21

Location and Mapping

  LocationManager
–  Service determines location and bearing
–  Register for periodic updates by time
–  Register for proximity updates by distance

  Google Maps library
–  Includes MapView
–  Programmatic access to Google Maps API
–  Handles user interaction to control Map

22

Example: Location and Mapping

23

Hardware and Sensors

  Camera
  Microphone
  Accelerometer
  Compass
  Example apps:
Layar, Google Goggles

24

Native Development Kit (NDK)

  Used in conjunction with the SDK
  Performance-critical, C/C++ code
  Just launched NDK r3
–  Support for OpenGL ES 2.0
–  Compact, efficient binaries

  Typical uses:
–  Games
–  Re-use existing C/C++ code base
25

Getting Started

developer.android.com

26

Getting Started

1.  Download the SDK
2.  Install Eclipse and ADT
3.  Look through tutorials and samples
4.  Run them on the emulator or your
device
5.  Write your app!

27

Developer Community

  Android has a strong, active developer
base
–  Google Groups
–  Stack Overflow
–  IRC office hours

28

Publishing your app
(in Android Market)

Publishing Android Apps

1. Develop 2. Register 3. Publish

http://developer.android.com http://market.android.com/publish/

• Android SDK • Create profile • Sign &
& register upload .apk
• Development
resources • Developer • Deployment
Distribution options
• Developer
Agreement
Advocates • Marketing &
• Setup merchant promotions
account 30

Publishing Android Apps

  Upload at any time, as
many times as you want

  Publish whenever you are
ready

  Users have access to app
right away

  Update app at any time

31

Registration

Basic Setup Distribution Countries
  Contact information   Launched in major
markets throughout
  One-time fee Americas, EMEA and
–  no limit on number of
applications
JAPAC.

  Developer agreements
–  Developer Distribution
Agreement
–  Content Policy Guidelines

Targeting Options

  Device capabilities
–  SDK level: Minimum and Maximum
–  Screen size: Small, Normal, Large

  Location
–  Target countr(ies)
–  Operator(s) (if applicable)
–  Matched to user’s service provider

33

Selling Android Apps

“Seller” Requirements “Seller” Countries
  Checkout merchant   9 countries supported
account required –  United States
–  United Kingdom
  Developer collects 70% –  Austria, France, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Spain
of application price –  Japan

  Transaction fee is   4 currencies supported
equivalent to 30% of the –  USD ($)
application price; goes to –  GBP (£)
operating costs. –  EUR (€)
–  JPY (¥)

Buying Android Apps

“Buyer” Requirements “Buyer” Countries
  Google Checkout   Americas
account required –  Canada, United States

  Methods of payment   APAC
–  Credit & Debit cards –  Japan, New Zealand
–  Carrier billing (if available)
  EMEA
  Purchased apps are tied –  Austria, France, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Spain,
to buyer’s Google
Switzerland, United
account, may be installed Kingdom
unlimited times

  24 hour refund period

Buying Android Apps

Prices are listed in Confirmation to Estimated price in Choice in payment
“Seller” currency buy “Buyer” currency method

36

Other Options for Distributing Apps

  USB side-loading via
Android Debug Bridge
(adb)
–  Useful in development and
debugging

  Download from website
–  Useful for private
distribution
–  Website may be access
controlled
37
37

How to Increase Exposure

Market Ranking

  Relevance

  Downloads

  Ratings

  Retention

  and other factors…

Featuring and Promotion

Promotion
Banner

Getting
Featured

39

Partner Device Launches

40

AdSense for Mobile Applications SDK

  Monetize!
  Auto display highest paying ads
  Targeting
–  Keyword, demographics, location
–  Ad placement

  Control ad appearance and positioning

43

Analytics Tracking for Mobile Apps

  Tracks install referrer
  Tracks Pageviews & Events
  Integrates with Google Analytics
dashboard

44

Device Dashboard

Version % of Devices
1.5 (API Level 3) 34.1%
1.6 (API Level 4) 28.0%
2.1 (API Level 7) 37.2%
Other 0.7%

Note: This data is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed
Android Market within a 14-day period ending on May 17th 2010

http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html
45

Copyrights and Trademarks

  Android, Google are registered
trademarks of Google Inc.
  All other trademarks and copyrights are
the property of their respective owners.

46

Android 101 Writing And Publishing Android Applications

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