How to become an Android developer?

Despite the fact that I have partially answered that in one of my earlier posts (Is it hard to become an Android developer…?) – I am still getting a lot of questions asking me how to become an Android developer. It is why I have decided to write about this once again. I know that the hardest in Android development is the beginning. I has been in the same situation and I lost a lot of time just to find the short intro that would tell me where should I start. In this post I will try to answer you by showing you the path. You will not learn anything right here – but you will know where should you start your adventures with this little funny Android robot (I bet you will like him sooner or later!).

Few (easy) steps…
So lets start from the beginning. With each step you should feel more comfortable and independent in new environment. Follow them until you will be able to learn by yourself.

1. Prepare the environment – it was really hard to me. What Java to choose, how to configure Eclipse and SDK. You will find this article very useful. Just follow those steps to have everything set up.
2. Make the “Hello, World” app – you will discover how easy it may be. But you should be warned it won’t be as easy with applications that will be doing more than showing “Hello” message. This article is a good start to your Android “Hello World”. Congratulations! You just made your first Android application!
3. Learn! – now comes the hardest. You will need to learn Android API. There are a few paths. Choose the one most comfortable to you:
   - Learn from examples. There are quite nice examples on the Android homepage. Here is the exact link. It will make you comfortable in many aspects of Android development and will help you know what are you really searching for.
   - Buy a good book for beginners. It is what I have chosen. I have bought two books that have really helped me to learn the basics. If you are interested I have chosen “Hello, Android” and “Beginning Android“.
   - Try to make your own app and learn from Android documentation (the hardest one for the beginners).
4. Make your own app! – the sooner or later you will want to make your first application. Do not wait with it too long as it is great way to learn Android API even more! You don’t have to be an expert to try. Learn the basics and then learn during development! That is the best way to learn any programming language.
5. Register as an Android developer – register as an Android developer on the Android Market via this link. It will cost you $25 but you will get access to the most powerful tool for developers! You will be able to publish your application as free or paid (depends of country you live in) to be accessible to most of Android users all over the world!
6. Learn to make your application popular – and make money on free Android applications as well! Check lastly published eBook “Make Money on Android” for more details.

And that’s it! Follow those steps carefully and you will be able to call yourself an Android Developer!
Conclusion…
It may be looking very straightforward when you look on those six little steps. But it wasn’t so easy when I was on the beginning of the path. I had no one that could tell me anything about Android development and I had to find all of this info by myself. I hope that this post will save you a lot of time and will help you becoming an Android developer. I did it and now it gives me enough income to make a living (you may check my income reports). Now it is your turn!
And just if you would like to learn more from me – or are curious about my future income reports – you are welcome to follow my Facebook page or twitter account… or my cool RSS feed!

Is it hard to become an Android developer…?

My last post (Android Developer Income Report) caused a lot of questions about how to jump into Android apps development. It is very surprising for me as earnings I have presented are not even close to most of iPhone developers income. Anyway the future of Android developers is looking very bright and there is a lot of space for new applications ideas… So if you are still really interested in making Android development a serious source of your monthly income this post may be helpful as a starting point… Here are statements I have read before I started to develop for Android…

You should know Java perfectly … That is FALSE!

Most of very serious experts would say “You have to know Java language perfectly or you can not even dream about Android development!”. That is not so true… In my case I have been coding really well only in PHP. Java was one of languages I have always wanted to learn in my free time… But I almost have no free time so I knew only very basics… I have even bought “Thinking in Java” – unfortunately I have not even finished a third chapter… But I knew the basics of Java. That is all you need!
You should know your IDE (Eclipse or Netbeans) perfectly… That is FALSE!
Another thing that expert would say “You need to know  your IDE perfectly or you will be lost in it before learning a new language!”. It looks that I am not real expert as I have started learning my IDE (Eclipse) with Java Dalvik (language used for Android apps). So the truth is you just need to start using an IDE to learn it… And books written by experts about IDE are in most cases waste of time and money…

You need to have an Android based phone… That is (again) FALSE!
It is good to have and Android phone… I will say even more… it would be best to have a few phones with different Android versions and different add-ons (Android tablet may be useful too) to test if your app is working with all of them! But it still won’t help you to get rid of all problems that an app may cause on another devices. It is helpful to test your app with real touch screen but for most cases an Android phone emulator (that is included in Android SDK) is really enough.
So what do you really need…?
There are a few things you need to start a real Android development. Here are a points that in my honest opinion are really required:

• Basic Java knowledge (or any other object oriented language)
• Free to download Android SDK with included Android phone emulator
• Free IDE like Eclipse
• Free Android documentation

Other things that are not necessary but are very helpful (in my case):

• Android phone (my choice I am absolutely happy with is HTC Desire)
• Good Android book to get to know the basics (I have bought two books that made me really comfortable with all the basics – “Hello, Android” and “Beginning Android 2“)

So if you really want to be an Android developer – don’t be scared by the “experts” – just try to learn it and you will be surprised how easy it may be!