As the smartphone market has grown exponentially, established platforms such as Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile have seen a declining market share, while others such as the iPhone and Android have spiraled with growth. Google’s announcement last week about its App Inventor for Android took some developers by surprise, however, as it is intended for non-developers.
The decision to make a tool which allows even non-developers to create web applications is good for the Android platform. Even if they don’t make it to the app store near you, they will allow ordinary people to create “proof of concept” tools which will eventually help to grow an overall acceptance and adoption.
The App Inventor tool is only in beta stages, and is still not available to the general public. Google plans to release the tool in stages, and many liken it to WordPress for app developers. The tool uses a concept called “blocks” which enables users to drag and drop blocks, or groups of blocks, together, adding, one would tend to believe from information on the website, events, links, images and more as the app is created, essentially like any other WYSIWYG tool.
