An Empirical Study of Mobile/Handheld App Development Using Android Platforms

Introduction

When Apple launched its iPhones in 2007, they opened an App Store subsequently. They claimed the store has over 100 billion apps download, and has paid out more than $30 billion to developers since its inception. There were more than 1.5 million apps available in 2015 (TechCrunch, 2015). The highly popular iPhones help the sales and development of applications. On the other hand, the large number of apps helps the sales of iPhones too. It is a win-win situation for both of the Apple, Inc. and app developers. Witnessing the success of the App Store, other mobile operating system providers realized they might be left behind if they did not have this kind of stores for their operating systems. They set up their own app stores immediately. Some of the major stores are given in Table 1 (Hu, 2016). The highly popular apps create great opportunities for IT companies and workers. However, traditional desktop programmers have problems switching to handheld programming because it requires a different approach from desktop programming (Kiely, 2001). This chapter introduces essential technologies for mobile/handheld computing, so more IT workers can join the mobile trend of computing.