Getting Started in Android Development on Nook

Question

I am an experienced Apple developer who is looking to develop for Android. I do not currently own any Android devices, so I am considering purchasing a B&N Nook HD for development purposes, which now runs Android. From the research I've done, it seems that the spectrum of Android devices is quite varied and disorganized compared to the Apple world (no offense intended). So, my question is, even though there are better (more expensive, too) devices to purchase (Nexus tablets), will a Nook HD suffice for beginning Android development? By the way, my intentions are to develop mostly tablet utilities with emphasis on networking and data manipulation. I'm not really interested in hardware-specific areas like graphics and sensory input (with the exception of the touchscreen, of course). Thank you for your advice.

Answer 1

In a general sense, yes. Your device will do just fine. However, a caveat is that you must take into consideration the flavor of android you are planning to target. e.g. Working on a Froyo flavor won't necessary guarantee it will run on the latest Jellybean and so on.

Hell, I started developing android almost 2 years ago (but stopped indefinitely) but it was only this year that I took it upon myself to get a PHYSICAL android device when I continued to develop my app. For no particular reason I just dropped by the local gadget mall and randomly picked the Samsung Tab 3. Yes, reviews are bad and it kernel panics a lot but these are trivial things for my specific use.

The one major problem I had? Dealing with REAL input from REAL data on a REAL device. My app worked sufficiently fine on the emulator. When it ran on the Tab it was breaking everywhere!