"The project is a further sign that Google is betting that its strategy of opening up its technology to all kinds of developers
will eventually give it the upper hand in the smartphone software market," suggests The Times. By contrast, "Its leading rival, Apple, takes a more tightly managed approach to application development
for the iPhone."
As ReadWriteWeb notes, "In Apple's ecosystem, there are a
number of DIY apps that let non-developers create and submit iPhone applications to the iTunes App Store without needing to know Apple's own development language." Yet, "Third-party Apple tools are
always just one step away from being knocked out of existence, thanks to Apple's ever-changing software developer kit license."
Meanwhile, some industry watchers are questioning the broad applicability of amateur apps. "Having just spent the
past three years learning to code for various platforms (including iOS), it is easy to be skeptical over these short cuts to writing applications," writes The Guardian's Sebastian Payne. "Knowing the
ins and outs of how the devices work is essential for creating something unique and useful. Past experience have shown me that drag and drop interfaces only allow for a limited range of functions,
produce clumsy applications and stifle creativity."
Furthermore, as Fast
Company says of the Google App Inventor: "It's a very simplified tool, nearly to a fault--you won't be creating any masterpieces here."
Harold Abelson, a computer scientist
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on sabbatical at Google, is far more optimistic. According to The Telegraph, "Abelson said he believed the project could precipitate a huge
growth in application development for mobile phones, mush in the same way as simplified programming languages, such as Basic, inspired a generation of computer geeks."
This is what will set Google Android apart, buggy, amateur apps. That's what we need more of.