May 19, 2010 Comments Off
Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Google I/O
Today was the first day of Google I/O, the annual developer event for all things Google, including the Android platform. We’ve got our Android app developers on-site and they’re excited about today’s announcements.
What a difference a year makes! Last year, there were just a few devices available from a limited number of carriers. Now there are over 60 compatible Android devices from 21 manufacturers in 48 countries. The devices are spread across 59 carriers worldwide. In the United States every wireless carrier offers Android based phones.
There are dozens of models to choose from at various price points, as well as additional form factors, such as tablets and e-book readers. And Google announced today that Intel, Sony and Logitech are going to bring Android onto TV sets. Can you imagine the app possibilities? We can!
Android Market Share
The Android platform has made some major market share strides in the last 12 months, driven largely by the full court push by Verizon to bring ‘Droid into the mainstream. As a result, there are now 100,000 Android phones being activated each day (over 35 million a year). In the first quarter of 2010 in North America, Android sales grew 707% compared to the same period last year. The Android Marketplace now has over 50,000 applications available for download and is growing at a rate of 10,000 more applications each month.
This momentum has some analysts predicting that by 2012 Android will overtake the iPhone and become the most popular smart phone platform in the United States, ahead of the iPhone and the BlackBerry. Be ahead of the curve and develop your Android app now!
Android App Developers
With all this excitement behind the Android platform we strongly recommend that you “Don’t Avoid The ‘Droid”. We offer a broad range of Android application developer services. ArcTouch can design and develop a custom Android application for you, or help you port an existing iPhone app over to Android. Our Android app developers have broad mobile development experience and a world-class Java background.
Contact us today and let us show you how.
July 21, 2009 Comments Off
A $2,000 Per Day Software Bug
TechCrunch reports a story of a top iPhone app developer that was losing $2,000 a day in ad revenue for their app because they made a simple software programming mistake that could have easily been caught by basic testing.
Test Driven Development
Our programmers use test driven development to ensure the highest quality code in our iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Pre apps. They create automated unit tests that define the expected results of the application functionality BEFORE writing any software code.
Test driven development follows a simple process:
- Write the tests. Tests are written before the functionality being tested. This helps ensure that the application is written for testability, since developers must consider how to test the application from the outset, rather than worrying about it later. It also ensures that tests for every feature will be written. Other developers using traditional development methods choose to code the features first, but then inevitably under time pressure to work on the next feature neglect testing entirely. Don’t let your apps fall into that trap – demand that any app developer you hire uses test driven development.
- Fail the tests. All tests fail first because no software code has been written by the programmer. This ensures that the test has been written correctly. Once this is shown, the underlying functionality can be implemented.
- Write some code and rerun the tests. The next step is to write some code that will cause the test to pass. Now the code can be cleaned up as necessary and re-run against the tests, a process known as refactoring.
Test-driven development constantly repeats the process of adding test cases that fail, passing them, and refactoring. Passing the tests confirms correct application functionality as developers evolve and refactor the code. Our programmers use automated test frameworks to re-run the complete set of tests whenever new code is introduced, ensuring that the previously completed code is still fully functional without bugs.
Test Driven Development Benefits
Studies have shown that test driven development has numerous benefits and leads to better software.
- Programmers are better able to focus and are more productive.
- By writing tests before coding, developers show they clearly understand the feature’s specifications and requirements.
- Errors introduced during the development cycle are discovered earlier and easier to rectify.
- Software is designed simpler and is more modularlized, flexible and extensible.
- No code is written beyond what is needed to pass a test.
- Finished software has better quality and is more stable.
ArcTouch Bug Free Guarantee
We’re so confident that our Quantum Development process and our test driven development results in superior quality apps that we offer a bug free guarantee. If you discover a problem anytime after we’ve delivered your app to you we’ll fix it for free. Guaranteed.
If you’re considering hiring an iPhone developer, an Android developer, a BlackBerry developer, or a Pre developer, make sure they use test driven development and offer you a bug free guarantee. If not, their mistakes may cost you far more than your original cost to develop the mobile app in the first place.
June 23, 2009 Comments Off
Essential Books For Software Developers
After you’ve gotten done reading all the material in the new Palm Pre SDK and the information in the iPhone 3.0 SDK, you may want to add some additional items to your summer reading list. The IDEs, simulators and development kits make it easy to rapidly develop apps for mobile phones, but it’s important not to jump right in without laying a solid foundation for stable, scaleable applications.
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May 29, 2009 Comments Off
We had a great time at Google IO this week and are really excited about what we heard, saw and touched.
Android Application Development
There’s alot of momentum around the Android platform and we’re thrilled to be an Android application developer. Most of the Android sessions we attended were standing room only, and the Android development team fireside chat proved to be one of the best sessions.
Over 20 New Android Handsets
Google announced that there’s over 20 new touch-based Android handsets expected to ship in the next year across all major carriers at many different price points. That’s a huge number and means that if you’re considering writing a custom application for your business you should make sure that Android falls into your top 2 or 3 platforms to deploy for after the iPhone.
We got our first taste of one of these new handsets from the HTC that Google gave to each attendee. It’s a great phone and the Android apps that ArcTouch has developed look and work great on it. We’ll have a full review of the phone in an upcoming blog post, but if the other new Android phones coming this year look and work the HTC then Google has a winner.
Google Wave
One of the most interesting sessions was the unveiling and live demonstration of Google Wave, a three year old research project that blends various forms of online communication and information into a unified form. Think of it as a stream of email, instant messenger, Twitter style posts and more for real-time communication and group collaboration. It’s first available as a series of developer tools and APIs and consumer oriented applications should follow later.
We imagine various ways we can leverage Google Wave in custom mobile software applications for our customers. The best part is that Google Wave isn’t limited to our Android development, but we can also leverage it in the software apps we develop for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm and other phones.
Overall a great conference with an abundance of smart people and great food and drink (and robots!). Next up on the mobile developer events calendar is Apple’s WWDC!
May 23, 2009 Comments Off
It’s a great time to be a mobile phone software developer! Over the next several weeks are some exciting events for iPhone, Android and Palm app developers – Google IO and WWDC, the annual development conferences from Google and Apple, and Palm is shipping the Pre, one of the mostly highly anticipated new smart phones.
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February 1, 2009 Comments Off
ArcTouch develops custom apps for mobile phones, such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm Pre.
We can take your company’s app from raw idea through launch in the app store, and we offer complete custom development services, including architecture, engineering, user experience design and product management. Our San Francisco based team has been together for over 15 years working at a diverse set of Silicon Valley technology companies. We’ve had long term engagements providing custom development on a variety of devices and platforms for many clients, including Apple, IBM, HP, and Adobe to name a few. We work as an extension of your team
- Have an idea that you need turned into an app?
- Wondering what sort of app your company’s products or services should have?
Contact us and we can help.
