App Inventor essentially fills the same niche as OS X's Automator: No, it doesn't make real programming easier. But there are plenty kinds of applications that honestly don't require what we'd consider real programming to implement, and this lowers the barrier to making them.<p>And it may even be a great gateway drug to real programming. App Inventor looks a lot like MIT's Scratch, which I used to teach some fifth graders simple programming constructs last school year. As much as they enjoyed that, I think they'd love using the same building-block type program construction to make something for their phones (yes, apparently fifth graders have smartphones these days).<p>> Like David says, it’s still programming even if you’re dragging around blocks rather than hammering out code.<p>Yes, but it's _easier_ programming (you don't have to both learn the semantics and remember exactly what syntax to use at the same time), which makes it a wonderful way to start.