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This whole discussion about fragmentation is a tempest in a teapot. The fact is, people are buying lots of Android handsets. If you've used the Android Market

by jnovek 16y ago

This whole discussion about fragmentation is a tempest in a teapot. The fact is, people are buying lots of Android handsets. If you've used the Android Market, you'll know that there are lots of apps. The apps in Market may not be as nice or as many as those in the App Store, but it's enough to sell lots and lots of phones. If you're writing mobile software right now, you should be targeting both iOS and Android (and probably BlackBerry) if you want to get your application in front of as many eyes as you feasibly can.

glhaynes 16y ago
If you're writing mobile software right now, you should be targeting both iOS and Android (and probably BlackBerry) if you want to get your application in front of as many eyes as you feasibly can. That seems tautological. :)
- jnovek 16y ago
  That's not true. It is beyond the resources of most mobile developers to go after the "long tail" of mobile platforms -- that's why I said "feasibly".
- boredguy8 16y ago
  At least we know he's right, though.
tvon 16y ago
> This whole discussion about fragmentation is a tempest in a teapot. Nothing else you say really backs this up, your point seems to be more along the lines of "you can't afford to ignore Android".
- jnovek 16y ago
  "A tempest in a teapot" is an argument that has no bearing on how events will actually play out. Fragmentation is just a conversation for geeks. My sister is going to buy an Android phone because it's cheap and pretty good. It doesn't matter to her that the market is fragmented -- hell, the fragmentation (and corresponding competition) is probably part of what made it cheap enough for her to consider it. Mobile developers are going to have to live with this fact, because there's a lot of eyes on the line. So far, fragmentation has not been a problem so hard to solve that it has driven developers away. As long as that's the case, the "problem" will feed on itself.

by jnovek 16y ago

glhaynes 16y ago

If you're writing mobile software right now, you should be targeting both iOS and Android (and probably BlackBerry) if you want to get your application in front of as many eyes as you feasibly can. That seems tautological. :)

jnovek 16y ago
That's not true. It is beyond the resources of most mobile developers to go after the "long tail" of mobile platforms -- that's why I said "feasibly".
boredguy8 16y ago
At least we know he's right, though.

tvon 16y ago

> This whole discussion about fragmentation is a tempest in a teapot. Nothing else you say really backs this up, your point seems to be more along the lines of "you can't afford to ignore Android".

jnovek 16y ago
"A tempest in a teapot" is an argument that has no bearing on how events will actually play out. Fragmentation is just a conversation for geeks. My sister is going to buy an Android phone because it's cheap and pretty good. It doesn't matter to her that the market is fragmented -- hell, the fragmentation (and corresponding competition) is probably part of what made it cheap enough for her to consider it. Mobile developers are going to have to live with this fact, because there's a lot of eyes on the line. So far, fragmentation has not been a problem so hard to solve that it has driven developers away. As long as that's the case, the "problem" will feed on itself.