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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

developer.android.com

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Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#91

Post by duaneb »

_ea1k wrote: post #18
javajosh wrote: post #5

Until the fragmentation problem is fixed, every new Android release only fills me with dread. Normally when new versions of frameworks or software that I use come out, I like it. Except Android, because every new version of Android has lots of nice features that I won't be able to use and it is guaranteed to further fragment of the marketplace. Android is the (old) Internet Explorer of mobile. I've never seen one app…

91% of the Android market is covered by 3 major versions (2.2, 2.3, and 4.0). 72% is covered by just two major versions (2.3 and 4.0). This problem isn't quite as severe as its made out to be. Dealing with the diverse hardware ecosystem and implementation bugs are both much larger problems, IMO.

Seems pretty horrible to me. Why don't their users upgrade?

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#92

Post by mbrubeck »

duaneb wrote: post #91
_ea1k wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

91% of the Android market is covered by 3 major versions (2.2, 2.3, and 4.0). 72% is covered by just two major versions (2.3 and 4.0). This problem isn't quite as severe as its made out to be. Dealing with the diverse hardware ecosystem and implementation bugs are both much larger problems, IMO.

Seems pretty horrible to me. Why don't their users upgrade?

It's not the users, it's the manufacturers and carriers. Updates aren't available for most devices.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#93

Post by brazzy »

briancooley wrote: post #58
moe wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This report disagrees with you rather strongly: http://opensignalmaps.com/reports/fragmentation.php It claims 2.3 and 2.4 make up for ~75% of the installed base, and the remaining 25% is just a mess.

The official dashboard is http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html and has been updated fairly often - maybe once a month or so - since ICS released. According to that chart, about 84% of devices that have accessed Google Play are on Froyo or Gingerbread, and another 7% are on ICS. Pretty much all of the phone market is concentrated in Gingerbread and Froyo. I think fewer than 10 types of phone are on…

Sony alone moved about 10 differen models released in 2011 to ICS about two weeks ago, mine among them.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#94

Post by brazzy »

dllthomas wrote: post #86
technomancy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what you get for trusting your carrier. Luckily you can get Android devices that you have control over yourself.

> Luckily you can get Android devices that you have control over yourself. Forgive me for asking something that some googling could answer, but... is there a good such device (sans rooting) that has a keyboard?

I am using the Xperia Pro from Sony, am very happy with it. Bought it unbranded and unlocked, has a great hardware keyboard, and was updated to ICS two weeks ago. The only downside is the rather small amount of builtin memory.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#95

Post by seanmcdirmid »

taligent wrote: post #42
mtgx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's exactly like saying that. Windows has several years between each version and each version still has like 30-40% each, so it's quite fragmented, too.

It is fragmented. But not in the developer sense. Microsoft has always been quite good in backporting their developer libraries. So even you did have users on XP you could simply bundle these with your app e.g. .Net, DirectX. Google may have to look at doing something similar for 2.3 users in particular.

Microsoft has been good at backporting their developer libraries? And we are talking about phone right? So...Windows Phone 7 (silverlight) to 8 (WinRT), or even from Windows Mobile 6.5 (WinForms, OpenGL) to Windows Phone 7 (Silverlight) . How much backporting was/is being done?

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#96

Post by jerhinesmith »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #95
taligent wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is fragmented. But not in the developer sense. Microsoft has always been quite good in backporting their developer libraries. So even you did have users on XP you could simply bundle these with your app e.g. .Net, DirectX. Google may have to look at doing something similar for 2.3 users in particular.

Microsoft has been good at backporting their developer libraries? And we are talking about phone right? So...Windows Phone 7 (silverlight) to 8 (WinRT), or even from Windows Mobile 6.5 (WinForms, OpenGL) to Windows Phone 7 (Silverlight) . How much backporting was/is being done?

No, they're talking about the desktop OS. Look about 2 or 3 levels up and you'll see the context is fragmentation between XP, Vista, and 7.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#97

Post by jshen »

technomancy wrote: post #55
jshen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you think that is a good situation for Android users? Want the new OS, buy a new phone without a subsidy. That is one hell of a tag line for Android

That's what you get for trusting your carrier. Luckily you can get Android devices that you have control over yourself.

This is true, but that is my point. Most people don't want control, they want a phone that does the latest and greatest. This makes the iphone a much better choice for most, including myself.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#98

Post by cpeterso »

javajosh wrote: post #8
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a lot of money to be made and they'll get in line The fact that that's not true is precisely why timely upgrades aren't done. Verizon and Motorola sold you that Droid RAZR. They get nothing from spending engineer time to update it. Also, what is this implication that Google is just being lazy or has some incentive to not have everyone running the latest OS. You really think Google so powerful that they can…

Apple gets "nothing" from engineering their upgrades to be backwards compatible. That is, if "nothing" means being incredibly successful. People are actually rather smart about things like this, and they know that the iPhone "just works" and will continue to work, and that is a huge competitive advantage. And long-term competitive advantage is one of the classic components of "maximizing shareholder value". So yes, p…

Apple owns both the iOS platform and devices. I think Apple supports their older hardware because they want to reduce fragmentation of their iOS platform. Apple plays the long game.

Google owns the Android platform, but only a few Android devices. The carriers and device OEMs just want to pump 'n' dump devices. They don't care about the long term health of the Android ecosystem.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#99

Post by jshen »

ryannielsen wrote: post #80
jshen wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Motorola have zero incentive to spend time or capital on maintaining old devices." You are making a large assumption when you say this. Your assumption is that it won't hurt them in the long run. Maybe that is true, but it's a risky bet to make. I certainly won't buy another android phone. Maybe most normal users will, but I'm skeptical of that. Here's how normal users will realize they aren't getting updates, beca…

Here's how normal users will realize they aren't getting updates, because it happens to me often. Somehow they learn about some cool app they want and they go to the Play store to get it. But they can't find it. It doesn't show up on their search! It won't take long for them to figure out that they can't get it because it doesn't work for their old version of android. Yes, but is there anything that enables them to m…

You could be right, but that is a risky gamble to take for the manufacturers and Google. I think most people will realize they have a substandard experience because they use their phones in social settings and will easily see that their friends have apps that won't work on their phone and they will have a friend that can explain why.

Re: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

#100

Post by magicalist »

taligent wrote: post #42
mtgx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's exactly like saying that. Windows has several years between each version and each version still has like 30-40% each, so it's quite fragmented, too.

It is fragmented. But not in the developer sense. Microsoft has always been quite good in backporting their developer libraries. So even you did have users on XP you could simply bundle these with your app e.g. .Net, DirectX. Google may have to look at doing something similar for 2.3 users in particular.

You're obviously not a Windows or Android developer :)

Backported to XP APIs have always been limited and just building software for XP is becoming increasingly difficult (probably as it should be, but the reality is that there are a lot of XP machines still out there), whereas building for both Android 2.3 and 3.0 is laughably simple. You lose out on some APIs, but most of the best stuff is in the support libraries. The "fragmentation" for OS updates (IMO) is really only a serious negative for the end user not getting new stuff, bug fixes, and security updates, not a real negative for developers (yet).

The bigger fragmentation problem for developers is different hardware and different drivers, but OS updates would not generally help with that since the vendors are probably worse with fixing driver bugs than they are with updating their phones (and that "fragmentation" is rather overblown, in any case).

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