Google is known for carrying out ideas simply to see what can be done with them. A case in point is the Google Fiber project. The latest, however, might very well change the way that mobile application development happens.
Google App Inventor is, as of today, a graduate of the Google Labs. It’s free software that aims to let anyone make an application. Check the video, and we’ll talk more:
Google has tested App Inventor with a decidedly non-programmer base of users. Starting with sixth grade students, then working through university undergraduates, App Inventor went through over a year of development before graduation.
Of course, Google is attributing the success of the project as a whole to the open nature of the Android platform.
The question that will invariably be raised, however, is about overall application quality. By Google’s own admission, these aren’t the prettiest applications available. They’re not the best designed, nor are they likely to be the most profitable.
However, these factors don’t appear to be Google’s direction. The idea is to give Joe User the ability to make a functional (if not pretty) application, and to see what will become of it.
Will it negatively impact the Android Market? It’s not likely. Let’s face it, even though we’re approaching 100,000 applications in the Market, the good ones rise to the top very quickly. There are literally thousands of useless, trash-directed applications, but they tend to get buried in a hurry.
Moving forward, we’ll be taking a look at some applications made with the App Inventor, and give you some highlights soon.
One advantage not mentioned would be the fact that you could build custom apps just for your phone. My first interest would be in making my phone cater to my needs and interests and this app builder would allow me to do that. It would only be later on if I thought I had something everyone else might be able to use that I would worry about making it available to share.
I’m really excited to test this out. I don’t think it will make the quality of apps go down – did WordPress or Tumblr make the quality of websites decrease? There will be more noise to filter, but we are empowering a whole new set of users with development tools. It is a great way to teach the basics of programming and will hopefully encourage young students to dive deeper into engineering.
Are you sercious? As a developer of apps myself, the only way you get decent downloads are if Google places you on their featured list. I had an app on there that was doing about 4000-5000 downloads a day. Until it got removed. Now it does 1000 a day if that. Exact same app. So I call BS on this.
The point of this is not to make apps to add to the Android Market. In fact, there’s no way to publish an app from this. The idea seems more of a staying point for those of us (like myself) who know jack squat about coding. The apps that users build here seem more for personal use. I say kudos to Google for trying to help people learn how to develop their own custom applications.