Google Encourages Mass Android Development with App Inventor

Google on Monday launched a new development tool, App Inventor for Android, which makes it easier than ever to make an app for the Android Market.

The biggest implication with the new software is that its simplicity will allow everyone, even younger children, to create applications for Android smartphones. One use scenario that Google envisions is teachers and students using apps for educational purposes.

On the App Inventor information page Google writes, “App Inventor is simple to use, but also very powerful. Apps you build can even store data created by users in a database, so you can create a make-a-quiz app in which the teachers can save questions in a quiz for their students to answer.”

The project has been in the works for at least a year and has included user testing with groups of sixth graders up to university students. While the testing has been primarily within educational corridors, Google sees wide-ranging appeal for a tool like this.

“The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world,” Harold Abelson, who led the App Inventor project, told The New York Times.

Examples of apps that were created with App Inventor include ParkIt, which helps users find their parked cars on a map, and Drum Kit, which makes it easy to play a full set of drums by tapping buttons and learn about drum playing. A full list of App Inventor sample apps are listed in the App Inventor Gallery.

To get access to the beta of App Inventor, go to the App Inventor application page and fill out a request.

Trackback: PCMag

By | 2010-07-12T12:41:53+00:00 July 12th, 2010|Android Related|0 Comments

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