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How Fragmented Is Android?

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Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#101

Post by klingonopera »

bahmboo wrote: post #99

I have an ipad 3 (yah the original ipad on its 3rd iteration). Apple was supporting os updates until fairly recently. The thing is that none of the modern apps tested or cared about something that old. So even if was technically supported the experience was borderline unusable. Even the core ipad usage was klunky. Stuff gets old and we move on.

Well, that's kind of the point: Despite the age, OS-updates to it shall make it work just like any new device, except for being slower. If features (that are also present in the older device) don't work at all instead of just slow, that's fragmentation.

You should upgrade an old device because you need a new feature or you want more speed a modern device can offer you, but having to abandon the device because it doesn't work properly anymore should not be an option you're forced to consider, and that's the point, the vendors do force this upon you to drive their sales.

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#102

Post by threeseed »

mattlondon wrote: post #13
on_and_off wrote: post #4

I work on an Android app aimed at the North American market. Android O, P and Q are 88% of our Android devices. By far and large, fragmentation is something I _never_ have to think about. Jetpack libraries are here to handle it for us, as an abstraction layer between the OS and third party apps. I would have mentioned that e.g. camera apps are an exception : here hardware fragmentation can be a pain. I was half surpr…

+1 I have a few hobby apps on the app store that gave had a few thousand downloads. Not a huge sample but generally speaking it's N+ that has the vast majority of users. My apps are fairly standard or are games - most API levels since M seem to basically cover everything I need 99% of the time. I have no interest AT ALL in the manufacturer of the device. Fragmentation simply doesn't feel like an issue, at least to me…

Fragmentation is an issue if you're at an enterprise or building a mass market product however.

Then you can't just ignore large percentages of the market.

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#103

Post by Karellen »

stesch wrote: post #29
rarestblog wrote: post #15

Well, if you remove all iOS versions with https://i.imgur.com/0Ar0ta5.png My point being: there ARE other iOS versions in use. I have a backup working iPhone 4 turned on right now. It won't upgrade beyond iOS 5 (I think it's iOS 5). But somehow the author ignores all those 0.1% iOS versions, yet shows them for Android (with 4 decimals no less).

By the way: iPhone 4 supports iOS 7.1.2, released 4 years after the iPhone 4.

Wouldn't it be better to say that iOS 7.1.2 supports the iPhone 4?

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#104

Post by megy »

on_and_off wrote: post #4

I work on an Android app aimed at the North American market. Android O, P and Q are 88% of our Android devices. By far and large, fragmentation is something I _never_ have to think about. Jetpack libraries are here to handle it for us, as an abstraction layer between the OS and third party apps. I would have mentioned that e.g. camera apps are an exception : here hardware fragmentation can be a pain. I was half surpr…

Sure. Plenty of people can ignore the cheaper devices. But if you work for a government agency, you may not be able to. Or a bank. Or a utility. Or a telecom provider. Or a 1000 other businesses.

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#105

Post by megy »

mattlondon wrote: post #13
on_and_off wrote: post #4

I work on an Android app aimed at the North American market. Android O, P and Q are 88% of our Android devices. By far and large, fragmentation is something I _never_ have to think about. Jetpack libraries are here to handle it for us, as an abstraction layer between the OS and third party apps. I would have mentioned that e.g. camera apps are an exception : here hardware fragmentation can be a pain. I was half surpr…

+1 I have a few hobby apps on the app store that gave had a few thousand downloads. Not a huge sample but generally speaking it's N+ that has the vast majority of users. My apps are fairly standard or are games - most API levels since M seem to basically cover everything I need 99% of the time. I have no interest AT ALL in the manufacturer of the device. Fragmentation simply doesn't feel like an issue, at least to me…

I mean, what? You are like a local store with foot traffic complaining about the global internet restrictions. Of course it doesn't affect you.

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#106

Post by multibit »

pekalicious wrote: post #12
DiabloD3 wrote: post #10

The article concludes, as far as I can tell, it isn't fragmented, it just has a bunch of recent enough versions on similar enough devices to run most apps. Apps don't care what version of Android you run, they care what API support you have, and apps can detect API support at runtime and adapt. OTOH, the article fails to mention that Apple refuses to let you support devices after EOL, and even some of the oldest Andr…

What makes Samsung phones consumer hostile? Their ridiculous prices? Because I wouldn't call that hostile, rather simply overpriced. And I would agree that they are. However, I still have every galaxy note I have ever owned, working, and in great condition (Note 2, 5, and now 8). My dad is actually using the 5. All of them got upgraded at least once to a newer Android OS and they are still solid devices. Granted, oth…

How about physical buttons that can't be remapped to anything other than their proprietary Bixby service? If you don't like it you can turn it off and have a useless button.

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#107

Post by felipemnoa »

yegle wrote: post #46
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other point is that most Apple store apps become uninstallable on anything older than three iOS versions.

This. I'm happily using JuiceSSH in Android Q beta even though it was last updated in 2017 and was targeting Android L. Android maintained reasonably good backward compatibility just like Windows did. So many iOS app developers would use new SDK as soon as newer iOS is out, and abandon existing users who chose to use old iOS. Worse, those app developers would choose to drop old version, release a new version that req…

>>Worse, those app developers would choose to drop old version, release a new version that requires you to purchase again.

To be fair, one is not entitled to free upgrades forever.

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#108

Post by ChrisRR »

But does this fragmentation actually matter? For most apps which are at most accessing some sort of online data, like a web shop, chat apps, etc. you just target the lowest API that has the features you want and it's compatible with all newer Android OS releases.

I would think the real fragmentation that developers have to consider is in things like screen size, or custom APIs by hardware vendors. In my experience, it's the difference between Samsung's bluetooth stack and Android's own

Re: How Fragmented Is Android?

#110

Post by nrjames »

Last I checked, for our popular mobile game, there were over 28,000 different models of Android phones represented in the analytics from a single day. Multiply that by Android versions, manufacturers, hardware specs... it’s a mess that is hard to wrangle.
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