Thoroughly test the application—at least with the Android emulator, but also with as many actual Android devices as you can lay your hands on. There is no substitute for testing applications on real phones under real mobile network conditions to prove that they work as you intend. The last thing you want is thousands of people upset with you because your application doesn't work the way they expect it to.

Decide whether you'd like to add an End User License Agreement (EULA) to your application. This is normal practice in the industry (it's the "click to accept" license that you see when you download an application, even on desktops), and is strongly advised. You can create your own license using one you've seen that you like, or you can have a lawyer create a new one for you. Again, you don't have to have a EULA to submit your application, but it is strongly advised.

Create the icon and label you want displayed for your application in the Application Launcher, and attach them to your application.

Clean up the application for release: turn off debugging, get rid of any extraneous print or logging statements that you had in for debug, and take a final look at the code to clean it up.

Make sure you've included a version number and a version name in your manifest file, and of course, bump the version number if this is a new version of a previously released application.

Create a signing certificate, and, if needed, a Map API Key, as described in this chapter.

Recompile your application for release using Android Tools.

Sign your application using jarsigner and your signing certificate.

Retest your signed application to be sure no errors were entered during the process.