How will using the Samsung Galaxy Tab Add-on affect/fetter my Android Market deployments?

Question

I have run my android app against the new build target provided by the add-on mentioned here. This appears to be working correctly in the emulator, but now I am very unsure as to the implications of using this build target when delivering an app to the marketplace.

1. It would appear that I have to use this build target to get the emulator to work. Is this true of the device in general? (i.e.) could I build against the standard android/google APIs and have it run correctly on the actual Galaxy Tab?

2. If I deploy an app with this build target to the Android market, will this adversely affect other (smaller screen) devices that I already run on? (I.e. is the galaxy tab "special sauce" a superset of Android functionality? I see grumbles about the Google APIs for maps not working in it, etc.)

3. Will i have to have two versions of my app in the market? One for "standard" devices and one for "large" screen devices? One for the Galaxy Tab specifically?

4. When Android Tablet vNext (whatever that may be) comes out and has its own custom add-on and build target, will I have to clone my repository and publish/maintain a device specific version of that (presuming that any add-on special sauce for the galaxy tab will not be in vNext's add on and will not be "compatible")

What I am driving at is that I can't find reliable documentation on how an add-on like this will affect the fragmentation of my app deployment and maintenance. I want to be able to support new Android devices like the Galaxy Tab, but I don't want to be building a bunch of one-off device-specific app implementations. Isn't the point to be able to have one app work on the gamut of devices?

Thanks in advance for any insight you might have on the situation.

Answer 1

It would appear that I have to use this build target to get the emulator to work. Is this true of the device in general? (i.e.) could I build against the standard android/google APIs and have it run correctly on the actual Galaxy Tab?

This shouldn't be required. After all, most market apps run just fine on the galaxy tab. The only problem seems to be that the GT emulator doesn't have the Google APIs installed, though AFAIR the actual device does. But I might want to check on that as soon as I get back to office.

If I deploy an app with this build target to the Android market, will this adversely affect other (smaller screen) devices that I already run on? (I.e. is the galaxy tab "special sauce" a superset of Android functionality? I see grumbles about the Google APIs for maps not working in it, etc.)

Well, I don't think so, but you should probably use one of the regular build targets anyway. The GT plugin only helps you by specifying the API version and the devices parameters, there is no special sauce involved.

Will i have to have two versions of my app in the market? One for "standard" devices and one for "large" screen devices? One for the Galaxy Tab specifically?

No, you shouldn't need to. You actually don't have to change anything in your app to make it run decently on the GT, since Android handles most of the heavy lifting. Android won't help you provide a different layout for tablets though, since they are not officially supported yet. But by looking at screen size and density, you can still choose to do so manually.

When Android Tablet vNext (whatever that may be) comes out and has its own custom add-on and build target, will I have to clone my repository and publish/maintain a device specific version of that (presuming that any add-on special sauce for the galaxy tab will not be in vNext's add on and will not be "compatible")

Simply put, no. In the future, tablets will most likely be supported directly by Android, and, if the current state of affairs is any indication, it will provide numerous ways to help you adopt your application for all kinds of tablet devices as well, without having to fork your code.

Answer 2

It's not the case that you need to use the Samsung-provided build target to deploy your app on the Galaxy Tab (definitely not the real device, and for me the emulator works fine).

I build all my projects with a target SDK of 4 (Android 1.6) and they run fine on the Tab AVD.

One implication of the advice from Samsung that needs consideration is that they want min SDK (not the same as target SDK) set to 4, which will exclude Android 1.5 devices. You probably do not really need to do this but should test to be certain.

In general with hardware vendors (Motorola, Samsung): - do take advantage of the AVDs, especially if you don't have the budget for the real device or it's not yet available - do not use the custom dev environment, stick with the Google standard tools.

My two cents.