Yesterday, Google unveiled its App Inventor for Android. The service is basically a simple tool for everyone who wants to build an app for Android devices. Instead of having to learn code, App Inventor enables the user to create apps by visually designing the way the app looks and uses blocks to specify the app’s behavior.

The thinking behind the initiative, Google said, is that as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves. To start creating applications, only a valid Google Gmail account is required.

“The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world,” said Harold Abelson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on sabbatical at Google and led the project.

While App Inventor is such a simple tool, it also offers some powerful features like access to the GPS sensor, SMS and data storage using TinyDB. The App Inventor team has even created simple gateways to services like Twitter.

As this enables consumers without programming knowledge to create applications themselves, this move may result in the growth of the number of applications in Google Android Market to accelerate even more. To stay informed, subscribe to our free monthly report.