title: Android Emulator is so slow that it is unusable
body: <p>My experience with the Android emulator is that it is so slow that it is unusable.  I see threads related to the issue going back over a year.  The lack of a coherent response to the question is unacceptable (this is not the Community's fault). </p>
  
  <p>Question: Has anyone that has experienced extreme slowness (more than 15 minutes to launch) <em>actually resolved</em> this issue so that startup is less than a couple of minutes?  If so, what did you do?</p>
  
  <p>Please note that I am not trying to tie the emulator to Eclipse.  I am teaching mobile web app development using jQTouch.  The web apps are testing by running the emulator standalone and opening the Browser.  </p>
  
  <p>While my machine is a little dated, I have no trouble running Vista, Office, PowerStudio, etc.  Here are details to add to the data around this issue.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>OS: Microsoft Vista, 32-bit</li>
  <li>Processor: Intel Celeron M CPU 520 @ 1.60 GHz</li>
  <li>Memory: 1.5 GB</li>
  <li>Symantec Antivirus - Disabled</li>
  <li>Emulator Start with no animation - did not help</li>
  <li>Startup time in excess of 20 minutes</li>
  <li>Java Version: 1.6.0_21</li>
  <li>AVD Settings: Device RAM size 1024, Snapshot support enabled both in AVD and startup. - ram size and snapshot did not help</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Google needs to acknowledge the issue and provide guidance about what development environments actually work.  If there were a recommendation for platform, java version, memory, etc., I would follow it.  </p>
  
  <p>Right now I have no options other than to tell students that the Android emulator doesn't work.  The only android solution is to buy a real phone, which limits testing to a single Android version and configuration.</p>
  
  <p>Students are not having trouble with the iOS simulator running on the Mac.</p>
  
  <p>If someone that works for Google could actually comment, that would be great.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks,
  Dale</p>