How does Android development compare to iOS development for an experience iOS dev?

Question

I know iPhone development fairly well. From personal experience, how hard would it be for me to get into Android? I am concerned less about code than I am about distribution of my software, given the fragmentation of the Android OS on compatible devices.

EDIT:

Thanks for all the great input so far. I just have one more point to clarify. How does app distribution work in terms of carriers, app stores and how do I get my money from sales? Does Google or the Carrier handle it? Do I need to process credit cards myself?

EDIT2:

One last question. Does the Android App store tell the developer how many times the app was downloaded?

Answer 1

There is a common misconception that the Android platform is heavily fragmented, for the most part this isn't a concern that most people consider it to be. Take a look at this post about the fragmentation being a red herring.

Beyond that, I generally target the 1.6 sdk to get a wide spectrum of useful features. The code and api itself is pretty simple and discoverable and there is fair documentation from google and also available here. You really shouldn't have any problems (in terms of "fragmentation") creating and distributing an application and having it work.

Answer 2

I found the development for Android very easy. Nice combination of Java and XML. Beside them great documentation and very good development tools.