Earlier this week, we reported on Gamelion Studios's first Android application, Global Factbook. Although usually focused on games, the company opted to release a more general app as its first Android title.

We fired some questions at producer Adam Skrzyszewski to find out more about the company's plans.

What are the most appealing aspects of Android from a developer's point of view?

The first feature of Android that has attracted our attention is very convenient access to device functionality. You don't have it hidden from the programmer and the standard APIs are supposed to make the development process very easy, especially for the game developers that have extensive J2ME experience.

T-Mobile's G1 is a very promising device in terms of access to social services, that involves all aspects of user location and data sharing across the Internet. Our vision for the future products is strongly aligned with this direction.

What we enjoy about Android is also the software distribution system. With all the similarities with Apple's App Store, it's way easier to publish applications on Android Market, and even the small and new players are treated equally.

It's the quality that makes your software stand out - let the users decide what rocks - and we're committed to development of the highest quality products.

How do you see it in comparison with iPhone as far as development goes - any key differences or advantages?

First of all, our approach is to seek business (and development) opportunities from cross-platform perspective.

The synergy that we can find and create between different platforms is something that we look at from multiple angles: How many similar design aspects there are, does it make sense to convert the existing code to a new platform and so on.

That being said, when talking about iPhone and Android, we don't want to oppose these two platforms as we believe they both have and will gather their own groups of users. It is interesting to see how much the consumer taste will differ between iPhone and Android.

It is possible to find (and create) synergies between different platforms, but the winning companies will also know how to take advantage of the unique aspects of each platform. Interesting times indeed...

Android Market's distribution system looks really promising, but at this stage it is way too early to compare these markets in detail. It is still to be seen what will be the best approach to monetize on Android market.

Lastly, the obvious difference between iPhone and Android is that the latter is intended for a very wide range of devices, G1 actually being only the first preview of platform's potential. With other device manufacturers willing to embed Android, we know that this platform is definitely worth investment.

Was it deliberate that you're launching an application rather than a pure game first on Android - is this a new strategy for Gamelion to widen out into apps?

Our focus is in casual entertainment regardless of the target platform, but after our merger with BLStream, our offering has been extended to other mobile applications - mobile 2.0 and lifestyle applications.

This is the first application developed by our studio that is not purely a game, and we find the freshly-launched Android Market a great opportunity to show it to the world. In fact, Global Factbook puts together advantages of an educational application and a game, which we call "edugame".

What are your plans for Android games - or more generally, what sort of technologies / features will your Android games use above regular Java games?

The world is getting converged and new opportunities to do business with casual games are arising at a fast pace - Android being excellent example of that. What we did with Global Factbook was just the beginning.

Now we are in a position to also help our publisher partners to monetize their IPs on Android. You don't want to be too early but you don't want to be late either. Now it is best to be at least prepared.

For sure we will also continue designing totally new experiences for Android and we have a couple of 'socially powered games' in our production which will most likely find Android as well.

So from the tech point-of-view we are looking to utilize the 3G and network functionalities to a wider extent. With Java, every device sets different limits of functionality. With Android, hopefully, hardware differences will not be such a big concern anymore.