Just remember that in some countries Android 4.0 is yet to be the norm...
Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
31–40 of 48 posts
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It's true, Gingerbread devices are still very common (I have a rooted Kindle Fire that's still running GB, and there's nothing I can do to change that). However, something to note is that there are new Gingerbread phones being sold in the US right now. A friend of mine just bought one. He's a student without a lot of money, and it was inexpensive and didn't require a long term contract. He doesn't have data on this phone, or even text messages. He has voice only, and does everything else over wifi.
They're still out there, absolutely.
Also, writing code to work well on lower end phones might be a pain, but it means it's going to make your app even smoother on the higher end devices. It requires more time, buy you get more of a performance buffer.
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It's true, Gingerbread devices are still very common (I have a rooted Kindle Fire that's still running GB, and there's nothing I can do to change that). However, something to note is that there are new Gingerbread phones being sold in the US right now. A friend of mine just bought one. He's a student without a lot of money, and it was inexpensive and didn't require a long term contract. He doesn't have data on this p…
>>(I have a rooted Kindle Fire that's still running GB, and there's nothing I can do to change that)
Well, ...not _nothing_
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26920609
...but I understand that only techies dare to go download random images from the interwebz and attempt flashing their device. Personally, my Kindle Fire is running this SimpleCM9 Android 4.0.4 quite well.
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not supporting IE6 will cost you lucrative enterprise dollars, Android 2.3, while popular, is not nearly as profitable.
There is a big difference though. People who run IE6 would be usually capable of running some more recent browser, but for various reasons choose not to. People who are stuck with Android 2.x are stuck because their hardware can't support newer versions of Android (well there are various custom ROMs that "work" with various degree of success on older devices, but not really in a usable form).
People running IE6 are doing it because their IT department won't let them upgrade.
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's true, Gingerbread devices are still very common (I have a rooted Kindle Fire that's still running GB, and there's nothing I can do to change that). However, something to note is that there are new Gingerbread phones being sold in the US right now. A friend of mine just bought one. He's a student without a lot of money, and it was inexpensive and didn't require a long term contract. He doesn't have data on this p…
>>(I have a rooted Kindle Fire that's still running GB, and there's nothing I can do to change that) Well, ...not _ nothing _ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26920609 ...but I understand that only techies dare to go download random images from the interwebz and attempt flashing their device. Personally, my Kindle Fire is running this SimpleCM9 Android 4.0.4 quite well.
Well I'll be. I guess I hadn't taken a look at what's being done to modify the Kindle Fire in a while, I shouldn't have doubted someone would build a newer ROM for it :)
Thanks for that link!
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#36Site 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…
Even in the world outside of "hipster palo alto", 70% of active Android users are on 4.0+: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
It seems to be growing 5% per month, so already by the end of the year 2.3 market share might fall below 10%.
Starting from 4.0, many APIs were cleaned up, many bugs were fixed, and it seems that many carriers/manufacturers have stopped shipping bizarrely broken custom modifications.
Unless you have a large development team and absolutely must reach every possible customer, targeting 4.0 and upwards seems to be the most efficient choice.
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#37Site 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…
as someone who paid google $600 for a nexus one that can only run 2.3 (2.3.3 with CM), i'm very offended. Even more so because they could have easily ported all the features such as browser rendering engine to the device.
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Interesting tone. I would have flipped it to the opposite: "He's advocating dropping support for the 30% least valuable users, who are in reality your least likely customers. Some large developers might be able to support such a cost, like Facebook, but for most developers its probably not worth the cost.
People with older phones that they paid only a few hundred bucks for two years ago should not have the expectation for it to keep working. It is not punishment, they can continue to use their devices as is perfectly fine."
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html IE6 is 4.9% http://www.ie6countdown.com/ They're completely different.
Yea, I think that's a pretty bad comparison. If you look at the IE graph you posted, it's less than 1% in the US. Another graph that might make things easier to visualize (the blue and above is who we're talking about abandoning): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Android-dist-by-dessert.pn...
I will grant that it is a bad comparison. But, not for percentage based reasons. I initially wrote the comment that abandoning Since Android API 14 is just celebrating its 14th birthday, I'd guess (nothing to back this up) that you're going to see a sharp dropoff of Android 2.3 marketshare as people replace their old phones. Between developing for the future, and incentivising people to switch away from old technology (people don't want to buy an old phone that can't run the latest goodies), I think this is still the correct path to choose.
Kill it with fire. I don't take much issue with making Android 2.3 a second-class citizen at this point.
[1] http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201001...
Re: Why it’s time to support only Android 4.0 and above
#40I 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.
Not supporting IE6 will cost you lucrative enterprise dollars, Android 2.3, while popular, is not nearly as profitable.
There are certain circumstances where you want to support ie6, though not many outside enterprisey things.
ie6 has lost widespread support. Heck, google stopped supporting it three years ago