Samsung Smart App Challenge - Wonderful Addition to the growing Android Developer Community

I used to follow closely on the Google Developer challenge. But I was not aware that Samsung too had started something on the same lines last year. I came across this Android Contest as I was browsing and realised it has happened once already in 2012 !! And it is being thrown open once again this year! Samsung Smart App challenge 2013! Interesting…  Seems like the best way to get the developer community engaged! 

The entry to the competition has just begun – It is open till August 31^st !

It seems an interesting competition. But the caveat seems to be that you have to use “Samsung Chord SDK”

The Chord SDK itself seems all the more interesting ! This Android SDK enables real-time sharing between devices without the cloud!! It allows for quickly connecting with nearby devices and thus sharing data, media and even playing fun games. This seems a welcome addition for the Android App Developer.

It seems like THE protocol that is going to take the developer community by storm considering the huge possibilities of the usage of peer-to-peer networks, without the need of a server! This allows for 1-to-1, 1-to-many and many-to-many device connections increasing the possibilities.

 As I look at this challenge and the Chord SDK, I would be blogging a bit more about it. In the meantime, curious to see anyone from the developer community visiting my blog interested or participating?

Would be great to hear your thoughts..

While the competition entries are open to 31^st August, the judgement is from October to November and the results would be declared by December.

The price money seems very encouraging. But the other benefits may all the more entice all budding entrepreneurs. There is a good chance that Samsung itself may support through its venture capital funding arm and will provide a lot of support in terms of promotional benefits – which is not too quantifiable but cannot be absolutely undermined !! More details on the awards and judges here.

Sponsored by Samsung

For Technical Leads and Senior Developers

Thanks for the wonderful response for the below post ... The Positions are closed now :)

Hi,

Technical Leads Needed in Bangalore Tesco
I work for Tesco and we are looking for Leads/Architects who are hands-on and understand design principles well enough to apply them for Android development. Any one with above 7 years of experience in software development with atleast 2-3 years in Android, please get in touch with me by replying to this post with a way to contact you.

We are using some cutting edge architecture at Tesco with principles of reuse across device sizes (tablets, phones, kiosks, TVs, wall screens, digital signages) across countries (12 of them) and across platforms (iOS, Android and Windows) and still keeping the apps completely native. Sounds interesting? Please feel free to get in touch with me for joining this cutting edge team :)

Senior Developers Needed in Bangalore Tesco
Also senior Android developers with 5+ years of experience with 3 years on Android can get in touch with me for the same team.

NOTE: Please do not send me resumes or get in touch if your experience is below 5 years.

Android and its Fragmentation

Android has been making rapid strides into the Mobile market and has become a serious contender for the top 1 position in the mobile market (and is picking up on the tablet market quite quickly).

The fact that it was anopen platform allowing for lot of innovation and choice made the developer world and the mobile OEMs vouch for it and the inroads it madeinto the market was significant – significant enough for Apple to stand up, take note and even file a law suit J

However, this very fact is now slowly turning to be a bane for the Android platform, as it has led to a huge amount of fragmentation in the market. OpenSignalMapshas done a research in 195 countries and has come up with the graphic that clearly depicts the kind of fragmentation in Android devices.

Samsung has clearly take a lion share of the market followed by HTC, Sony Ericcson and Motorola. An interesting fact is that they have spotted 3997 distinct devices!

This very fact has brought down the euphoria around Android. Another study by Appcelerator and International Data Corporation (IDC) says:

“The most significant finding in the Q2 2012 Developer Survey is Apple opening a dramatic 16% lead over Google’s Android as far as which OS will win in the enterprise marketplace, with 53.2% of developers saying iOS will win vs. 37.5% saying Android will win. This is a very significant change over only three quarters: in Q3 2011, developers viewed iOS and Android in a dead heat at 44% each.”

The challenges of this fragmentation are around the varied screen sizes and the many OS versions which translate to the larger effort and investment into testing on the varied combinations to keep all customers happy.

A graphic that illustrates the varied resolutions:

and the number of device models:

The above statistics sound a bit unsettling around the fragmentation aspects of Android and would probably scare away developers from investing on this platform!

But in my opinion, this is no different from the fragmentation on PC (probably better than that) where the browsers, the CPU powers, the models etc. are varied and still we have lot of gaming apps that are developed for all of them.

Probably the good news is that Android right from the beginning is learning its lessons quickly and it introduced the concept of “fragments” to scale to varied screen sizes and designs.

Android is just going through the stabilization phase of a open platform and the good news from the same study by Appelerator and IDC says:

“Android has arrested its decline in developer interest. After a noticeable erosion of developer interest over the last year, developers’ Android handset “very interested” levels stabilized in Q2 2012 compared to Q1 2012, and Android tablet “very interested” levels ticked up 2.9%.”

So, in my opinion, Android with all its challenges is just grown over the hype cycle and is here to stay as a strong contender to other mobile OSes and would probably win the race. However, right from the beginning, developers have to keep these variations in mind and build apps that look as seamless as possible on multiple OSes.

And testers, if you are reading, here is your chance... A lot of opportunities around device coverage, OS version coverage, screen size coverage and so on.