Goa Android Users Group (GAUG), second largest of its kind in country
Ten Goan android apps were recently ported on to the Nokia X Store
As the IT movement gains momentum across the country, Goa has been
making a noteworthy contribution to the industry. With the presence of India’s
second largest group of android users in the state and the recent selection of ten Goan
android apps which were ported on the Nokia X Store, Goa is slowly establishing itself in this domain as well. “Goa has the second largest Android group in India – The Goa Android Users Group (The GAUG). This group is a
developer community group from Google which is officially registered on Google’s
community portal. Founded in mid-2011, the group has more than 1,000 registered
members,” explains Prajyot Mainkar, Director, Androcid Media Pvt Ltd, Panjim, who
spearheaded the first Nokia workshop in Goa. “Our company is one of the earliest adopters of android app development in India. The team works on research in the field of android and also has an android development team that builds apps. Besides organising android events and workshops across India including the largest developer conference in Mumbai –DroidSync, Androcid has been organising Goa’s only Android conference in Goa –
Nitrodroid,” he adds. The company’s main aim, he reasons, is to create a consistent link
between the current industry needs and what professionals / students learn.
To this effect, last month, Androcid, in
collaboration with Nokia, organised a first-of-its-kind exclusive workshop for developers and companies in Goa with a focus on porting
android applications to Nokia X. “The
workshop aimed to provide companies and
individual developers with a knowhow to
develop apps for Nokia X using existing
android SDK, toolkit and skill set. Nokia
provides a plug-in package to android SDK, including the services APIs and the Nokia X emulator. Nokia’s technical team also stressed on creating additional revenue streams for
android apps with Nokia Monetisation tools like In-App Payment. Combined with Nokia’s
extensive operator billing network, this will
provide Android apps with new monetisation
mechanisms in emerging markets. They also demonstrated how the developers could
leverage this platform to expand their app reach across the world.
There were series of slides explaining the
developers to help them step-wise to port their apps,” elucidates Prajyot. Commendably of the one lakh android apps tested by Nokia, ten Goan apps were ported on the Nokia X Store.
To keep the momentum going and further develop the android market in Goa, GAUG, which is headed by Prajyot, organises monthly meetings which includes sessions and code-tabs. The group has not only
received a good response in Goa, but is
eliciting enquiries from neighbouring states.
In a latest development, a women’s
chapter has been added to the GAUG – The GDG GAUG Women, led by Arya Padte. “The aim of this group would be to boost female participation in the meet ups and to help them learn latest android happenings and other developments. We aim to
collaborate with several colleges so as to get better response,” states Prajyot.
