Welcome to the very first Amazing Android Apps For Dummies book!
I’d like to say this book has been a long time coming, but the truth of
the matter is that Android apps have been around for only a couple of
years, and they’re only just now reaching the quality and quantity to
justify such a book. If I had written this book even just a few months
earlier, it would either have been a much thinner book, or I would
have had to call it Some Amazing but Mostly Mediocre Android Apps For
Dummies. That’s too long a title, and it probably wouldn’t make for a
very interesting read.
By some accounts there were more than 150,000 apps available for
Android devices by the end of 2010. That’s a lot of apps, and the
number of new apps that come available for Android devices keeps
growing — by the end of 2010, roughly 1,000 new Android apps were
showing up every day.
Some of the apps come from large companies that employ a phalanx of
developers. Other apps are created by hobbyists and enthusiasts who
are just getting their programming feet wet. But as I worked on this
book and had occasion to reach out to the developer community time
and time again, I discovered that many Android apps are produced
by knowledgeable programmers, working in their spare time — mostly
because they have a passion for the Android platform. For many
developers, the potential money to be made from producing Android
apps is a secondary concern, if at all.
There are actually far more free Android apps available than paid
apps. And don’t assume just because an app is free that it isn’t any
good. There are scads of amazing free Android apps to be found. And
don’t assume, either, that if you find a paid app that meets your needs
or tickles your fancy that there must also be a free app that does the
same thing and is just as good. That might be true in some cases, but
many paid apps are well worth their price tags.