I'm considering whether to make my app available on Android, wondering if anyone has an experience to share about how difficult the port is. My app also uses sqlite and that may be a show-stopper right there, as I did not see anything in my brief review of the Android sdk that indicated support for a relational database of any kind.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iOS Has anyone ported an iphone app to Android?
- Thread starter beachdog
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Android does have support for SQLite: http://code.google.com/android/reference/android/database/sqlite/package-summary.html, http://en.triled.org/Android.database.sqlite, http://www.google.com/search?q=android+sqlite, ...
Clearly you've never done any cross platform porting.. not too difficult? 
Language differences are *trivial* compared to the other problems you encounter. Even porting between two Unix platforms, which theoretically share common APIs, can be hell sometimes.
Porting from objective C to Java, to a different OS, different rules... it's basically a rewrite. Sure it's not too taxing if you're well versed in both languages, and have written Android apps before, otherwise you've got to factor in the learning curve into the development time.
You may also have to adjust the specs to handle limitations/features in each OS. Either you reduce the functionality to the lowest common denominator (which speeds development because both projects are working to a common spec) or you write for the strengths of each and end up with two distinctly separate projects, but a better end user experience.
Provided you can spare the people it's best to have a separate team (or person, if it's a smallish app) for each platform so they don't have to keep switching. The time taken for one person to switch between projects (mentally, as well as physically) gets quite significant over the life of a project.
Language differences are *trivial* compared to the other problems you encounter. Even porting between two Unix platforms, which theoretically share common APIs, can be hell sometimes.Porting from objective C to Java, to a different OS, different rules... it's basically a rewrite. Sure it's not too taxing if you're well versed in both languages, and have written Android apps before, otherwise you've got to factor in the learning curve into the development time.
You may also have to adjust the specs to handle limitations/features in each OS. Either you reduce the functionality to the lowest common denominator (which speeds development because both projects are working to a common spec) or you write for the strengths of each and end up with two distinctly separate projects, but a better end user experience.
Provided you can spare the people it's best to have a separate team (or person, if it's a smallish app) for each platform so they don't have to keep switching. The time taken for one person to switch between projects (mentally, as well as physically) gets quite significant over the life of a project.