Android apps that aren't on the iPhone (yet)

Suzanne Choney • E-mail

Two months after the first Android phone was released, there are more than 400 free programs from which to choose and the promise of more handsets coming that use the open-source operating system.

The number of “apps,” or applications, is anemic compared to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, which launched in July. It has more than 10,000 programs now, from finance to games, some paid, some free.

Among Android’s inventive offerings not yet available for the iPhone are Ringdroid, which lets you make your own cell phone ringtones within seconds; ShopSavvy, which turns the phone into a product barcode scanner and delivers up comparative prices online; and Ecorio, which can measure your carbon footprint on a daily basis and help you reduce it.

The first Android phone, also known as the T-Mobile G1, aka the Google phone, aka the HTC Dream, went on the market in late October.

Sales have been strong for the $179 phone available only through T-Mobile. And more Android handsets reportedly are in the works from companies like Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, as well as a new model from HTC. The Taiwanese company has said it expects to ship 1 million G1s by the end of this year.

Quite a head start
The iPhone was already a phenomenal success a year before the launch of the App Store, which lets users download programs directly to the phone.

The Android Market, which works much the same, is still finding its way. Programs, so far, are free — but free, of course, means no revenue for those who create programs. Many of those with apps in the Market are developers with a passion for the open-source software or those betting on Android’s future.

Neither T-Mobile nor Google, the main force behind Android, has said yet when fees will start being charged by the Android Market, the equivalent of Apple’s App Store.

Once they are, developers will get 70 percent of revenues, the same percentage developers get from App Store revenues. Apple gets 30 percent, and in the case of Android Market, the wireless carrier will get 30 percent.

Revenue is a huge incentive, obviously, but so are the meat and bones of the device and operating systems that developers have to work with, and Android's programming model is considered elegant and fun by many.

It should get more fun early next year when a major update to Android, known as "cupcake," is released. It will improve e-mail, Web browsing and phone functionality, as well as a host of fixes to the operating system.

Google Google employee Dominic Mazzoni led the team effort to develop Ringdroid, an Android program which can create ringtones from audio files using the phone itself.

Developers of iPhone programs have had “the advantage of being able to utilize a powerful 3-D engine” in the iPhone to create their applications, said Rana Sobhany of Medialets, an advertising network and analytics provider for mobile platforms.

“That, coupled with the iPhone’s accelerometer (motion sensor), microphone and other features make developing for the platform very conducive to creating fun and engaging games,” of which there are more than 3,000. In contrast, there are more than 100 games for Android.

Android developers, Sobhany said, “tend to make applications that skew more on the utility side, given the graphical limitations and form factor of the device.”

'Pleased' with developer response
But Android’s open-source operating system means that there are few rules and anyone who wants to can write programs for the phone. That’s in contrast to, for example, Apple’s policy with the iPhone, where the company must approve software programs written by developers before those programs can be part of the App Store.

“We’ve been really pleased with the response from developers and the number of apps we’ve seen,” said a Google spokeswoman.

Among the Android-only programs — those not yet out for the iPhone — that have won good reviews for their utility are:

Ringdroid
Ever wondered what your own voice would sound like as a ringtone? I did — and it’s not pretty — but I could do it using Ringdroid.

A better choice for me — and for most people — is to use Ringdroid to create ringtones, alarms or notifications on the phone from digital music files that are already on the phone, or can be added via an SD card. Ringdroid works with MP3, WAV and ARM files.

The program has a “record” button and makes it easy to save whatever you record as a ringtone. Maybe a little too easy.

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