I’m the fresh and happy owner of G1 Android phone. I have chosen it instead of Apple IPhone, because Android is open platform and I have read many dissatisfied IPhone developers complaints about Apple distribution model and objective C language unnecessary complexity. Android advertises it’s SDK as fast and easy, so I had to verify it immediately after unpacking and fully charging my phone. SDK comes with Eclipse plugin, which aids refactoring, debugging, provides class and method stubs etc. Installing it, setting enviroment and connecting your phone is piece of cake. After writing “hello world” application and running it on my phone , I noticed a possibility of using OpenGL ES 1.0 (fixed pipeline). I’m not really familiar with OpenGL API, but I managed to find some code samples showing how to create vertex-colored cube (standard example – not fun to watch anymore). After adding simple touch interface, I’m able to rotate my cube using index finger.
The whole process – setting everything up, going through hello world and adding controls to simple OpenGL ES demo took me around an hour. It is indeed very easy to start developing on Android. I would like to create something more sophisticated now – maybe a game with touch interface. Android store is not overwhelmed by games like Apple store, creating even simple, free game could be nice thing for community.
Result may be not very impressive 
, but anyway – here’s the screenshot:
If you would like to read more, a nice artice which compares Android and IPhone development can be found here:
Android vs IPhone Development: a comparison
PS. Android also has ASE – Android scripting enviroment that allows you to write simple Python or Lua scripts directly on your phone (preferably by using attached keyboard). Scripts can be used to make phone calls, send messages, poll location from GPS, use text-to-speech module and many more. There is even a guy who wrote automatic garage door opener using ASE – you can read about it on his blog: brad’s life .
