An overview of the Android app market and its demarcating features

The use of Android based smartphones has increased reasonably well with time and now boasts of an incredible number of apps. The market is growing at the rate of 32 per cent every month and there is no end to the number of smartphones which are coming in the market related to every price range which gives the users with a huge number of options. The rise in interest is mostly attributed to the great sale of Samsung S II and due to the advent of Samsung S3 which has got released recently. There are certain HTC models along with Sony Ericsson who have been impressive with the slew of smartphones that they have released in recent months. Android is open source and hence there are many Android developers who are interested in creating innovative apps.

Android also presents an open market place for developers who create third party apps and they are allowed to publish and rate too. Android app development can be done using any platform: Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

Here are some of the best-known apps which have a large fan following:

• Google Voice
• Advanced Task Killer
• Evernote
• Documents To Go
• Amazon Kindle
• Astro File Manager
• Pandora
• Shazam
• Dial Zero
• Google Goggles
• Google Sky Map
• Tricorder
• Bump

Cloud based service integration and its related apps have companies that control IT to expand their operations. Mobile apps have extended the overall reach and location based apps can easily find out the location of the mobile as well as the customer via GPS. These apps give out detailed information related to different places, things and facts. It is said that in the future the Android-based phones will be used as smart cards to swipe and withdraw money. E-commerce companies are looking to leverage this feature on smartphones and so that they can easily attract people for easy sales. It would also make shopping easy and fun for all.

Android is always in demand and the field of mobile application development space comprises of many other players. But Android is very popular because of its easy-to-use software development kit, Android Media APIs, Location–based feature and Wi–Fi feature.

There are various mobile application development services provided by Android developers:

• Web-based app development
• Custom Android apps and domain-based apps
• Java app development
• Android games development
• Mobile business app development
• Multimedia-based app development
• Enterprise Security mobile app solutions
• Feature-based app development like GPS-based and Wi-fi based apps
• Communication app development
• Utility app design and development
• QA services for Android projects

Here are some of the salient features of Android OS

• Android can Run Multiple Apps at any given point of time. Android users benefit greatly from this feature and hence one can listen to music or even record GPS data simultaneously.
• Information is kept visible on the Home Screen. Android has a customizable home screen with active widgets without any application launch necessary.
• Android has reached a whopping figure of apps in the Android Marketplace which gives immense potential for the user to leverage a smartphone’s features. The market is completely open for budding developers to introduce innovative apps.
• Android helps you choose your carrier as well as a smartphone on a budget.