In 2010, Google announced its App Inventor development environment, a graphical environment for building Android apps. The project has its roots in Scratch.

According to a press release, Google open sourced App Inventor and donated the project to MIT Media Lab. I guess you could say the project came home. The App Inventor announcement was in the context of the new MIT Center for Mobile Learning, which will be “dedicated to transforming education and learning through innovation in mobile computing.” Time will tell what that means, exactly.

I’m wondering what the future holds for App Inventor. Will it be typecast as an educational too? Will it serve a broader user/business application? Will programmers adopt it as a viable programming language?

I dig Scratch and think App Inventor could be a wonderful companion, especially if App Inventor can have some practical application. In other words, it seems it would provide a logical progression from the strictly educational/fun application of Scratch.

I’m watching closely for the next news. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about my next book.