I don't know if Android was ever the one catching up with apps. Remember the first iPhone wanted to use html5 apps + not allow an app store/custom apps, only those provided by Apple.
Whereas Android wanted SDK + app storefront from the get-go. The "Androids" book has this quote: "I wanted a fourteen-year old kid sitting in Kansas to be able to write an app in the morning and upload it in the afternoon to Android Market and have it go out to sell to all the customers."
Can't recommend this book so much though - it has some interesting bits but it's just not technical enough/the writing style is very same-ey across the book (which makes sense since they're telling the same part of the story from different perspectives) but it just gets very boring reading essentially the same phrases etc over & over.
Whereas Android wanted SDK + app storefront from the get-go. The "Androids" book has this quote: "I wanted a fourteen-year old kid sitting in Kansas to be able to write an app in the morning and upload it in the afternoon to Android Market and have it go out to sell to all the customers."
Can't recommend this book so much though - it has some interesting bits but it's just not technical enough/the writing style is very same-ey across the book (which makes sense since they're telling the same part of the story from different perspectives) but it just gets very boring reading essentially the same phrases etc over & over.