FMGo Under Android?

[eqitec]

Would it ever be possible to run FM Go on an Android tablet?

[Fitch]

Not unless someone creates an app emulator.

[El_Pablo]

Since FM is tightly linked to Apple, this is part of the dream realm.

[bcooney]

I disagree. FM has never limited its ability bcs of its corporate ties to Apple. In fact, the lack of the design team at Apple interface dept is often lamented. Actually, the non-operating system interface tools are the price we pay for x-platform capability.

I feel that Android FM is a possibility. FM's claim to x-plat has always been its pride. However, just how many operating systems can you expect it to support, without too much head-ache for a developer?

[jjfcpa]

When you consider that Oracle just filed suit against Google for violating patents (regarding Java) that are included in Android, I would be surprised if Filemaker moved FMGO to Android before this suit got settled. That would be kind of a slap in the face to Oracle and Larry Ellison is Jobs' best friend.

Having said that, didn't Filemaker mobile run under Palm OS, and putting it on Android would certainly open the door for Filemaker and FMGO on a lot of devices that would be used in a corporate environment.

[David Jondreau]

I don't think businesses of Oracle and Apple's size care about a "slap in the face". They care about profits for shareholders.

FMI has opened the door halfway, the only obstacle I think is technical. My poor understanding is that it's a lot harder to get consistent results across all the various phones using the Android operating system.

But I'm not sure how much of an obstacle that is.

I see it happening within a year.

[jjfcpa]

I agree, profits come first, but opening FMGO up to Android probably won't make that much for FM. What it will do is make a whole bunch of FM developers suddenly able to deliver apps to the iphone and Android phones without having to learn Objective C or using something like Appcellerator.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a HUGE step in the right direction. After all, if you've got a client running a desktop solution created with FM and they want you to put on their phones... what's the chance they all have iphones. I'd say if they got it to work on Android and Blackberry, they'd have 90% of the business market.

[El_Pablo]

I guess making the move to Android and other smartphones will just crush what's remaining of MS Access on portable device.

[bruceR]

I don't think businesses of Oracle and Apple's size care about a "slap in the face". They care about profits for shareholders.

FMI has opened the door halfway, the only obstacle I think is technical. My poor understanding is that it's a lot harder to get consistent results across all the various phones using the Android operating system.

But I'm not sure how much of an obstacle that is.

I see it happening within a year.

But the technical obstacle is also a massive financial obstacle. How many devices in the forked and fractured Android world do you have to design for, does the solution work flawlessly on all those devices?

[David Jondreau]

My understanding is that Google does issue compatibility standards for its hardware developers and uses the Market to encourage software developers to conform to those standards. But there are compatibility issues between the three popular versions of Android.

I certainly wouldn't design for multiple Android platforms, but I'm not FMI. The compatibility issues are for FMI and Google to work out.

I'm not sure how great the technical issues are, but FMGO doesn't use most of a phone's features that seem to cause cross-phone problems in other apps (GPS, camera, etc).

And "flawlessly" doesn't describe how Filemaker (or most, or any) software works. "Consistency" is more the goal methinks.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Guest

[David Jondreau]

I spoke with a FMI employee the other day...They have no intention of building an FMGO for the Android OS. It's just too inconsistent.

[Greenman]

I know this is reviving an old thread, but given the explosive growth of android use, I'm not sure FMI can litterally afford to continue to ignore the android platform. At some point, it will not be economically sensible to keep that many potential customers from buying their product. Same with Bento. Someone else will fill the gap, if they don't.

[eqitec]

Worldcloud.com advertises that it supports Android device access to its hosted Filemaker Pro environments. Haven't tried it myself.

I'd be interested if someone succeeds.

[Smef]

Hey guys, I've recently made an Android app for accessing FileMaker databases. It uses the XML gateway of FileMaker server, giving you basic access to your databases. It's got the basic search, sort, edit, add, delete, download, scripts, etc right now, and I plan to continue to add new features. Take a look and let me know if you have any feedback about it.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.smefworks.android.fmdroid

http://smefworks.com/fmdroid