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Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

nickbradbury.com

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Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#31

Post by gardarh »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #10

I think a subtle problem with the android fragmentation is that it is not going to get any better. As time goes on there will be more devices running more android versions. While Google's cheap handset initiative embodied in Nexus 5 will ameliorate problem a bit by giving people incentive to upgrade, it is not nearly enough. I would like to see Google do more to address growing complexity of fragmentation.

I think the main issue with fragmentation is dealing with 2.3 (as the article mentions). Now that that's going away it's getting much better very soon so I can't agree that "it is not going to get any better". The latest Android project I'm working on will only work for ICS and newer and I've had very few cross-platform issues (two minor issues that I can think of).

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#32

Post by eloisant »

guelo wrote: post #22

As far as OS version fragmentation, iOS 6 and Android 2.x are both running on approximately 20% of their respective ecosystems. But for some reason iOS developers are more ruthless in cutting off older devices. I recently convinced a very insistent company to drop Android 2.x support after I pointed out that they had already dropped iOS 6 support without giving it a second thought.

I guess more iPhone users have the opportunity to upgrade for free than Android users.

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#33

Post by eloisant »

FigBug wrote: post #20
pjmlp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that any different to make it work on the hardware configurations of all PCs ?

It's not. Except Windows has 95% of the market and the Mac had 5% of the market. So even though it's easier and cheaper to support a Mac app, the market is so much smaller it's still not really worth it. Compare to mobile where iOS market place was leading, it didn't make a lot of sense to spend more effort on the smaller market. Now the Android market is about equal, you are still spending more effort to make the sa…

Well, no, Android market share is not equal to iPhone. It's much, much more.

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#34

Post by millstone »

barumrho wrote: post #3
skrowl wrote: post #2

The people who point out "90% of Apple iPhone users are on the latest OS version! Android sucks because not everyone is on the latest OS!" don't realize (or care) that Apple just bundles up a bunch of userland components and calls it an OS update. Nearly everything but the kernel is auto-updated to the latest version on all Android devices, even if they're several OS versions behind. The discussion should be around "…

Nearly everything but the kernel is auto-updated to the latest version on all Android devices, even if they're several OS versions behind. This benefits users, but not developers. Developers still need to code and test against old API levels.

If almost everything is auto-updated, why do developers need to test against old API levels? Wouldn't the frameworks be updated as well? Or are the frameworks covered by the "nearly" qualifier?

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#35

Post by andmarios »

Many comments here can be summed to “I am frustrated because Android is fragmented and I may not be able to target all one+ billion android devices if I code for a week”.

No problem here though, if you think 1+ billion users don't deserve a few dev hours, you may as well code for another platform. Same goes if you think targeting anything less that 1+ billion users is problematic.

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#36

Post by dippyskoodlez »

pjmlp wrote: post #12
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #10

I think a subtle problem with the android fragmentation is that it is not going to get any better. As time goes on there will be more devices running more android versions. While Google's cheap handset initiative embodied in Nexus 5 will ameliorate problem a bit by giving people incentive to upgrade, it is not nearly enough. I would like to see Google do more to address growing complexity of fragmentation.

We manage fragmentation between computer systems since the dawn of computing. I really don't get why some people make a huge fuss about it on Android.

The problem is the hardware AND software targets for mobile devices is still growing and evolving rapidly.

Rapid, very different hardware variants- Screen size, cpu power, GPU power, storage mechanisms. Software: 3d Apis, third party Apis, if you want to take advantage of a new framework you may not be able to because of people either unwilling to, or not able to upgrade.

It's completely different from the PC world.

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#37

Post by gress »

gress wrote: post #23
SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Semi-mandatory Android 2.3 support is a fragmentation problem Only for spoiled iOS developers. I used to develop for Windows, starting in pre-1995. Want to talk about fragmentation? With dozens of video cards, each with their own custom APIs for doing anything that standard VGA couldn't handle, dozens of sound cards with varying levels of support for the de facto standard(s), memory configurations from 128k through…

Spoiled by having lower costs and so being able to devote more resources to the product for their customers?

Isn't that simply a logical consequence of the GP comment? Presumably the downvotes indicate a dislike of the state of affairs.

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#38

Post by mgkimsal »

pjmlp wrote: post #26
FigBug wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. Except Windows has 95% of the market and the Mac had 5% of the market. So even though it's easier and cheaper to support a Mac app, the market is so much smaller it's still not really worth it. Compare to mobile where iOS market place was leading, it didn't make a lot of sense to spend more effort on the smaller market. Now the Android market is about equal, you are still spending more effort to make the sa…

> Except Windows has 95% of the market and the Mac had 5% of the market. Except you are forgetting, screen resolution, processor speed, graphics card, sound card, co-processor, printer type, scanner type, microphone, webcam, harddisk, network card, modem, ...

Way back in the day it was pretty common for people to swap out pieces of a system (not too much today except for gamers).

Your system needs a bigger screen? Get a bigger monitor and/or graphics card. Need a faster modem? Buy one. Need a camera? Add it.

Go upgrade the graphics chip in your Android 2.3 handset. Oh wait...

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#39

Post by tafda »

guelo wrote: post #22

As far as OS version fragmentation, iOS 6 and Android 2.x are both running on approximately 20% of their respective ecosystems. But for some reason iOS developers are more ruthless in cutting off older devices. I recently convinced a very insistent company to drop Android 2.x support after I pointed out that they had already dropped iOS 6 support without giving it a second thought.

iOS 6 was released fall 2012, the last release of Android 2.x was in 2011. A better comparison would be Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to iOS 6 - that's 35% of the android base on ancient versions (pre 4.1, relative to iOS's 4%)

cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history#Android... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_6 http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/12/05/apple-pegs-ios-7-d...

Re: Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem Revisited

#40

Post by wzsddtc »

If you have used Android's Camera APIs, you would know how bad the fragmentation is. Had to fix various framerate/preview size issues on many Samsung S3/S2 variants because Samsung have their own private camera parameters when you don't use the default MediaRecorder and just try to process the frames yourself. (I work on recording for Vine)
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