One of the most visited posts on this blog is Why There is No AmpKit for Android. After Android got core support for low-latency audio about two years ago I was sure that we would see some amp sims worth the name on Android, but there has been pretty much a continued vacuum.
According to music technology magazine Sound on Sound Google has just announced that Android now supports class-compliant USB audio hardware (class compliant USB devices are those that work on Windows or Mac computers with no extra drivers).
Optimists will likely think that this is the missing piece that will unlock the amp sim market on Android. Personally I don’t think so. Having see the total lack of progress in the three years since I wrote the first post about amp sims on Android.
I think that mobile amp sim makers think that the iOS market is large enough, seeing how musicians tend to go for Apple products. There are a lot of similarities developing audio applications for iOS and MacOSX, and the current trend is that iOS amp sim makers create Mac versions of the applications rather than port to Android.
