Minimal Requirements to begin Android Development

The minimum requirements in terms of hardware, software, and programming skills to begin Android development are not very demanding. 

 

Hardware Requirements:

Android development tools run on all flavors of computers of relatively recent vintage: Linux, Mac OS, or Microsoft Windows. An Android device such as a smartphone or tablet is useful (and of course the ultimate target for development), but is in fact not essential to getting started since the software contains virtual device emulators that allow you to develop and test. 

Software Requirements:

The software required for Android development is free and readily available on the Web:

1. The Java Development Kit (JDK).


2. The Eclipse IDE (Java Developers version) with the Android plugin is not technically essential since everything it does can be done using the command line, but it simplifies so many things that we will consider it to be essential.The Eclipse IDE can be downloaded from:

 https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

    3. The Android SDK and add-ons such as the Google Maps SDK.

The materials present on the following link can be used to facilitate  app design and implementation.

http://developer.android.com/design/downloads/index.html

Programmer Requirements:

Android is typically programmed using a combination of Java and XML). Thus some background in these languages will be extremely useful.. Therefore, anyone with some programming experience should be able to use the code as a starting point to learn how to program Java and XML within the Android environment.