There has been a whole flurry of conversation around Google App Inventor this morning. App Inventor is Google’s new tool that allows anyone to create apps for the Android platform without any prior programming knowledge. For many this brings back memories of Geocities and the original WYSIWYG editors, which allowed users who didn’t know HTML to create webpages of all sorts (many of which offended even the most basic sensibilities). There are pros and cons to such an approach.
The biggest pro is volume. These type of editors enable a much wider base of people to create content. Google App Inventor will clearly increase the amount of apps available in the Android Market.
The biggest con is quality. Apps created with an editor like Google App Inventor are inherently limited in their capabilities. It may be a great editor (I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet), but the best apps will still be created by people with the programming skills necessary to add additional layers of customization and complexity.
The problem is, Android doesn’t need quantity, it needs quality. As someone who interacts with both Apple’s App Store and Android’s Market on a regular basis, I can say without a doubt that Apple is crushing Android. It’s not about the quantity of apps–Android has over 50,000 apps. It’s the fact that the vast majority of those apps are complete trash, which deters users like me from paying for apps, and further deters quality developers from developing for Android. It’s a vicious circle, and the only way to fix it is to bring some legitimacy to the Android Market that’s missing.
At this point Google’s best hope is to focus on improving the existing app experience for its users. Great apps needs to be curated and brought to the forefront while bad apps are filtered out of the system. Purchasing apps needs to be way easier, and the whole experience needs to feel safer. Until that happens, a giant influx of mediocre apps is going to hurt more than it helps.