4000 version of Android

[Seadog]

A major firm that keeps track of such things, has found over 4000 versions of Android in use, giving new light on how serious fragmentation of the system is. Of the 4000 devices found using a version of Android, over a third of them were using one-off custom versions. Over 50% were using Ginger Bread (down from 64%) and only 5% were using ICS.

 

[NoNoBadDog]

What is your point? I have an Android phone (Motorola Bionic), and it seriously kicks iPhone butt. It isn't even close! I love my iPad, but will never go back to an iPhone, because since switching to Android, I found out how good phones can be.

Sent from my iPad 3rd Gen using ipf

 

[Amp1216]

Android cant make a tablet to compete with apples but androids phones are good

 

[inline6power]

Android cant make a tablet to compete with apples but androids phones are good

i agree 100%. love the customizable stuff on android on their phones. will never own a apple phone since i really like the bigger screens. i am rocking a galaxy nexus now and love it. as far as tablets go, apple hands down. so much smoother opperation than android and it just works. a few minor things i wish i could do with my ipads but being it just works far better than android tablets i can live with certain setbacks like no folder creating in mail and so on. very curious to see the microsoft windows 8 tablets coming in november.

 

[seneca18]

What is your point? I have an Android phone (Motorola Bionic), and it seriously kicks iPhone butt. It isn't even close! I love my iPad, but will never go back to an iPhone, because since switching to Android, I found out how good phones can be.

Sent from my iPad 3rd Gen using ipf

Well I will not try to make Seadogs point but there have been several discussions lately about IOS vs Android, iPad vs Transformer, bla bla, that sort of thing. I think what this shows is that while Android may have more customizing features the fragmentation of the operating system will continue to plague Android and its developers. Also, it shows that with only 5% of Android users having ICS carriers and phone manufactures are having a real issue in making the newest software available to customers. Whether it be compatibility issues with lesser hardware devices or another issue I do not know.

 

[NoNoBadDog]

Well I will not try to make Seadogs point but there have been several discussions lately about IOS vs Android, iPad vs Transformer, bla bla, that sort of thing. I think what this shows is that while Android may have more customizing features the fragmentation of the operating system will continue to plague Android and its developers. Also, it shows that with only 5% of Android users having ICS carriers and phone manufactures are having a real issue in making the newest software available to customers. Whether it be compatibility issues with lesser hardware devices or another issue I do not know.

Well, that is only one wy to look at it. Clearly, you have a bias that prevents you from realizing that this "fragmentation" you are rambling about is only a concern for you. I can tell you that for myself, and the many people I know that own android phones, it is a complete non issue.

The core code is the same, regardless. You don't seem o understand that. Each new version brings refinements, improvements, and new features. But they till run the same apps from the store. No issue there.

As for your hardware remarks, I will counter that it is far better to have a choice of what hardware you want/need, rather than having someone at Apple deciding for you.

Sent from my iPad 3rd Gen using ipf

 

[thewitt]

As a developer of mobile apps, I can tell you that the fragmentation is meaningful for us. We are only supporting 3 of the top selling Android model phones, having dropped everything else due to too much work to keep them current vs the return.

 

[seneca18]

Well, that is only one wy to look at it. Clearly, you have a bias that prevents you from realizing that this "fragmentation" you are rambling about is only a concern for you. I can tell you that for myself, and the many people I know that own android phones, it is a complete non issue.

The core code is the same, regardless. You don't seem o understand that. Each new version brings refinements, improvements, and new features. But they till run the same apps from the store. No issue there.

As for your hardware remarks, I will counter that it is far better to have a choice of what hardware you want/need, rather than having someone at Apple deciding for you.

Sent from my iPad 3rd Gen using ipf

So what exactly in my "rambling" (very polite by the way) was bias? You asked what the point was of Seadogs post, I simply re stated the facts presented. No where did I indicate that IOS is better than Android, you simply implied it. The fact that fragmentation hurts developers is a fact, not a bias or opinion.

 

[Kaykaykay]

As long as my Android devices do what I want, I don't care about fragmentation.

I figure that it's up to me to use what's the best combo of devices for me. As for developers, their probs are theirs to figure out.

 

[AQ_OC]

Well, that is only one wy to look at it. Clearly, you have a bias that prevents you from realizing that this "fragmentation" you are rambling about is only a concern for you. I can tell you that for myself, and the many people I know that own android phones, it is a complete non issue.

Each new version brings refinements, improvements, and new features. But they till run the same apps from the store. No issue there.

And new bugs, too. Let's go back to December last year when most folks who had an HTC Droid Incredible suddenly started getting low memory errors when their phones had plenty of space. Turns out HTC had modified the code and restricted an important storage element to only 150 MB and once that got down to 10% left the phone went nuts. And no fix from Google, Verizon, or HTC. That's why I have an iPhone today. And I'm not noticing how Android is worlds better. The only thing I miss from Android is this one app called Mr. Number that blocked calls from people not in my contacts. And it also blocked sms texts. It's a really useful app for Android, IMO.

 

[thewitt]

The HTC is one model we no longer support...

 

[oberkc]

Android cant make a tablet to compete with apples but androids phones are good​

While this may be semantics, "android" does not make tablets...android is an operating system. From a hardware and operating system perspective, I find many android-based tablets compelling. Perhaps a more accurate way of stating the problem is that the "fragmentation" of android has hindered the development of tablet-specific apps for android. I believe that it is for this reason (lack of tablet-specific apps) that android tablets are having difficulty "competing with apples".

I find it interesting that iPod apps don't scale well to iPads, and I suspect this has generally forced app developers to develop iPad apps separate from iPod/iPhone apps. I find this less true for android phone to android tablet app transitions. Maybe this is another reason that there are few tablet-specific apps for android. Can what is arguably a shortcoming in the iOS approach has, in retrospect, turned out to be a strength?