[fdb]

Mono on Android sounds tempting. But how much overhead does the core runtime on the platform add? What is the impact in KB's and runtime performance?

[andybak]

And how well integrated into Android 'proper' is it? For example - intents and fragments?

[bad_user]

I played with it -- integration is very good, mirroring the Java API quite well.

I would still use Java directly on Android though.

I do agree with the author that Android's SDK is a little complicated, but it has good reasons for it and whenever I choose new platforms I take it as a given that I have to make an effort to learn it.

I don't see much value in bitching that the learning curve is steep, when once you get to know the platform it becomes easy to make it do what you want -- in general I bitched about Java frameworks because power and ease of use are completely missing, even once you learn them properly, but that's not the case with Android.

And as far as iOS development goes, I work on apps more complicated than drawing Hello World with a couple of buttons -- and to me Android is better because it allows me to do mostly whatever the hell I want; compared to iOS where I always ask myself "is this even possible"?