In The Android App Inventor from Google is a free online tool, which lets you build your own apps for smartphones using the Android OS. The main advantage of the app inventor is that it can be used even if you dont have any programming experience. You dont have to type in a single line of code; all you need to do is fit pieces together like in a puzzle.
For the large number of fans of the App Inventor, there is some bad news. In its official blog, Google has announced that it is going to take the App Inventor down within the next 90 days. But the good news is that it has also said it will make the programming code open-source, so that anyone can use it on their own. Google also insists that the company will give attention to supporting the educational use of App Inventor.
Googles post says, With the winding down of Google Labs, Google will discontinue App Inventor as a Google product and will open source the code. Additionally, because of App Inventors success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform. As a result of these changes App Inventor will be available through the end of the year but users should expect the current App Inventor URL, to change sometime in the next 90 days. Please subscribe to the App Inventor Announcement forum for future updates.
At the time when it was first announced, App Inventor had been hyped as a breakthrough in application development. But critics soon realised that the apps developed through the system were not at all competitive with what is available in the Android market place. Apps developed through coding run faster and are more flexible. However, the technology with is popular with schools and colleges where students without coding experience can use it to hone their programming knowledge.
It will not be easy for Google to release the App Inventor as open source, because patent related issues might be involved. A careful examination of the code will be required to establish whether someone else owns any bits.
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