Android™ Tablet Application Development For Dummies®

Developing the Android Developer Inside You

Becoming an Android developer is a lot simpler than you probably think. To see what's involved, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I want to develop Android applications?
• Do I like free software development tools?
• Do I prefer to pay no developer fees?
• Do I have a computer I can use to develop applications?

If you answered yes to all these questions, today is your lucky day: You're ready to become an Android developer. You may be wondering about the no fees part. Yep, you read that correctly: You pay no fees to develop Android applications — that means that the tools, framework, and languages to develop Android applications are 100 percent free.

There's always a catch, right? You can develop for free to your heart's content, but as soon as you want to publish your application to the Android Market — where you upload and publish your apps — you need to pay a nominal registration fee. As of this writing, the fee is $25.

Put your mind at ease about fees. If you're developing an application for a client, you don't necessarily have to pay a fee for client work. You can publish your application as a redistributable package that you can give your client, who can then publish the application to the Android Market by using his Market account. Doing this ensures that you don't have to pay a fee for client work — which means that you can ...