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Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

dannyroa.com

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Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#11

Post by rocky1138 »

maaku wrote: post #3

Site is giving me a database error, so I'm committing the sin of posting based only on the title :( Hipster Mountain View/Palo Alto is not the world. Most people who manage to afford to buy a smartphone, use the thing until it dies. I personally just upgraded from an Android 2.3 device, and my latest Apple device is on iOS 2. And I read Hacker News for christ's sake. Maybe for your app, your community the norms are d…

I use an Android 2.3 device. I'm not paying for a new phone until this one breaks.

On a side note, I'd love to update the software on it, but Samsung/Telus have not offered an upgrade path. So, 2.3 it is.

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#12

Post by richkz »

nawitus wrote: post #5
MAGZine wrote: post #2

I feel that supporting Android 2.3 at this time is roughly equivalent to supporting IE6. For the majority of people, just stop targeting 2.3 support as a requirement. Perhaps it'll net you some additional marketshare in emerging markets, but for the most part, ≥API14 is ubiquitous to a point where this is a sensible decision.

http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html IE6 is 4.9% http://www.ie6countdown.com/ They're completely different.

Perhaps worth looking at the drill down based on country/language...

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#13

Post by Zikes »

nawitus wrote: post #5
MAGZine wrote: post #2

I feel that supporting Android 2.3 at this time is roughly equivalent to supporting IE6. For the majority of people, just stop targeting 2.3 support as a requirement. Perhaps it'll net you some additional marketshare in emerging markets, but for the most part, ≥API14 is ubiquitous to a point where this is a sensible decision.

http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html IE6 is 4.9% http://www.ie6countdown.com/ They're completely different.

I'm no Android developer, but with as many API versions I know of for Android it's not hard to imagine that the development experience is very similar. Supporting <API14 may cost more in development and support than the potential customer base gain, especially if the target market is the sort that would have newer devices.

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#14

Post by imperio59 »

67726e wrote: post #10
imperio59 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't scale your blog server but you're an authority on what version of Android to support? Cool story bro.

You can be a great developer and not know the first thing about server administration. They aren't mutually inclusive skill-sets in the least. If I spend my day working on embedded systems, why would I give a rat's ass about a webserver?

Well, going off the title since the blog is down, Gingerbread is still 28% of Android phones out there. (Source http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html )

Not to mention there are still plenty on new GB phones sold in developing markets.

He's advocating dropping potentially 30% of his potential consumers because it's technically easier. Some of us can probably afford that, some can't. But I just think broad statements like "Just drop support for the older version, it'll push people to upgrade and make the entire system better" is a stupid argument.

The reality is people paid a lot of money for their sweet new Android 2.3 phones 2 years ago or less. Why should you punish them now and not spend the extra time to make your app work well there?

The biggest problem with GB that I've seen isn't necessarily the lack of certain APIs , but the constraints in terms of resources on phones with GB, which tend to have worse hardware (because they are older devices or lower-end devices). If you think by developing on ICS/JB you magically can stop worrying about performance or resource constraints, you'd be mistaken. Some of the new cheaper Android phones in developing markets are very resource constrained.

Cheap devices aren't going away. Dropping GB support does not mean you can stop writing performance-optimized code or profiling your app.

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#15

Post by th3dude »

rocky1138 wrote: post #11
maaku wrote: post #3

Site is giving me a database error, so I'm committing the sin of posting based only on the title :( Hipster Mountain View/Palo Alto is not the world. Most people who manage to afford to buy a smartphone, use the thing until it dies. I personally just upgraded from an Android 2.3 device, and my latest Apple device is on iOS 2. And I read Hacker News for christ's sake. Maybe for your app, your community the norms are d…

I use an Android 2.3 device. I'm not paying for a new phone until this one breaks. On a side note, I'd love to update the software on it, but Samsung/Telus have not offered an upgrade path. So, 2.3 it is.

I think this is the true problem.

How many devices are out there that could be running 4.0+ but aren't due to manufacturer or carrier interference? Not everyone is capable of rooting and installing custom versions of the OS.

Android fragmentation is purely a manufacturer/carrier issue. To the article's point, maybe developers can help that process by enforcing 4.0+.

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#16

Post by [deleted] »

imperio59 wrote: post #9
dannyr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Need to resize my server. Can't handle traffic. Read the blog post then decide. Wrote perspective from different Android devs in the blog post.

You can't scale your blog server but you're an authority on what version of Android to support? Cool story bro.

[deleted]

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#17

Post by Zigurd »

I'ma let him finish when his site comes up, but here why I generally recommend targeting Android 4:

1. If you want to make a UI that scales across all device sizes, and you don't want to use hacks like ActionBarSherlock that will become a maintenance headache after the moment of convenience, build your app skeleton around Android 4 APIs.

2. Targeting Android 4 avoids use of the Support Library for back-compatibility, and therefore avoids using FragmentActivity. This isn't as bad as some of the back-compatible action bar hacks, but it is still an unnecessary complication in most cases. N.B. you may still want to use the Support Library for new APIs like PagerAdapter.

3. Tablets are going to increase in importance, and for some apps, tablets are the main target. Center your implementation strategy around tablets as the ideal experience, with multiple fragments on each tablet-size layout that are "unrolled" into sub-activities when running on a handset.

4. If you think the above point implies a unified code-base, yes, it does. Targeting Android 4 and above will simplify your unified code base.

The exception is apps that MUST target every user, and every device in the field. For example, my consultancy had an engagement with a dating site that needed to upgrade their Android app. After weighing the pluses and minuses, the conclusion was that it was better to put in more effort and incur some technical debt to reach every possible user. On the other hand, if you are writing an enterprise app for a green-field deployment, don't even consider supporting old versions.

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#18

Post by fruzz »

It's amazing to me that we're saying that a three year old OS is too old to have software written for it. Especially given that a part of the laptop market has metamorphosed into the tablet market.

I guess that's not a problem if you buy new tablets/phones every year, which is what we're moving towards.

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#19

Post by dannyr »

Zigurd wrote: post #17

I'ma let him finish when his site comes up, but here why I generally recommend targeting Android 4: 1. If you want to make a UI that scales across all device sizes, and you don't want to use hacks like ActionBarSherlock that will become a maintenance headache after the moment of convenience, build your app skeleton around Android 4 APIs. 2. Targeting Android 4 avoids use of the Support Library for back-compatibility,…

Site is back up!

Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above

#20

Post by donretag »

MAGZine wrote: post #2

I feel that supporting Android 2.3 at this time is roughly equivalent to supporting IE6. For the majority of people, just stop targeting 2.3 support as a requirement. Perhaps it'll net you some additional marketshare in emerging markets, but for the most part, ≥API14 is ubiquitous to a point where this is a sensible decision.

Most users can easily upgrade their browser if forced to. Upgrading your phone is not as easy.
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