Android can be credited for the introduction of most innovative applications for mobile due to its open-source nature. This encourages developers from around the world to develop tremendous applications and upload their piece of work for users in Android market.
A variety of software development kits (SDKs) are available for these developers of each experience level to demonstrate their expertise and creativity in application development. Though Java is the commonly used programming language for various platforms for developing apps, other toolkits exclusively support other languages like C or extensions of C and Ruby.
The selection of a development environment is based on the nature of the application to be developed. The availability of in-built libraries reduces the unnecessary burden of creating an application-specific functionality from scratch. However, application-specific functionalities can also be developed in other tools with the addition of extra efforts to program each module separately. Some of the tools which are available for developing an Android application are:
Basic4Android : This tool can be used to develop cloud-based android apps . Basic4Android also provides inbuilt libraries for developing enterprise and in-house applications . This tool provides the capability to develop and test applications involved in database communication and can even be used for developing 2-D real time games. Google's AdMob library is also included in the suite so developers can embed any advertisement in their apps for earning revenue. Also, the code compiles down to the native bytecode so no runtime libraries are required. Gimbel Context aware : Gimbel provides a full-fleged platform for developing geography based applications or Geo fencing apps. In-built libraries of this tool enable a developer to develop location-based and Geo fencing solutions. It's a product developed by Qualcomm to assist developers for developing location-based apps without starting from the scratch. It's a multi-platform development tool for creating apps for both iOS and Android devices. Titanium SDK : It's another multi-platform app development suite used for developing native apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. It uses the syntax of JavaScript for programming and includes about 5000 APIs in order to provide high percentage of code-reusability. Vuforia : To develop augmented reality based apps and other apps which make use of real world images and 3D targets, Vuforia is the solution. It includes the functionality to include real world elements directly into the application without any need to code it separately and developers need not to develop the same functionality again. It is another powerful development tool by Qualcomm to assist developers for programming augmented reality experience in their Android apps effortlessly.
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