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After further thought, I'm wrong. I think the way this will actually play out is a little different. When Loopt had this problem, we had to support all the br

by kogir 15y ago

After further thought, I'm wrong. I think the way this will actually play out is a little different. When Loopt had this problem, we had to support all the broken devices, or the carrier wouldn't put us on deck at all. Now it's possible to just not offer (or even pull) the app on broken or non-standard devices. No bad reviews, less extra pain. Testing and feedback monitoring would still be required, but not fixing or hunting for work-arounds. Then the burden would fall on device manufacturers (slowly -- consumer behavior would need to change). Consumers would stop buying phones that didn't have any apps. I'm curious now to see what happens, and much less confident in my ability to predict the outcome. No matter how you look at it this is good news, and the result could be interesting and new.

foobarbazetc 15y ago
"Consumers would stop buying phones that didn't have any apps." No they won't, because the average consumer has NFI what version of the OS they're running. Android is J2ME all over again. At least it's Java 5+. :)
- antrix 15y ago
  What the parent is describing isn't so much OS version specific but device specific. If Samsung puts out a phone with a broken Android build on which the GPS is always faulty, as a developer, I can blacklist that device and my GPS reliant app won't show up on that device's Market. Consumer buys that device, loads up the Market & tries looking for my app which their friend said was MUST HAVE. They don't find it on the Market so go back to the store, return the device & get another. I think this is what kogir is talking about. Feel free to replace GPS with such things as broken OpenGL implementation, etc.
  - e28eta 15y ago
    I think a more likely scenario is that the user can't find the app and gives up. I'm very much in favor of putting the power in developers' hands though.

by kogir 15y ago

foobarbazetc 15y ago

"Consumers would stop buying phones that didn't have any apps." No they won't, because the average consumer has NFI what version of the OS they're running. Android is J2ME all over again. At least it's Java 5+. :)

antrix 15y ago
What the parent is describing isn't so much OS version specific but device specific. If Samsung puts out a phone with a broken Android build on which the GPS is always faulty, as a developer, I can blacklist that device and my GPS reliant app won't show up on that device's Market. Consumer buys that device, loads up the Market & tries looking for my app which their friend said was MUST HAVE. They don't find it on the Market so go back to the store, return the device & get another. I think this is what kogir is talking about. Feel free to replace GPS with such things as broken OpenGL implementation, etc.
- e28eta 15y ago
  I think a more likely scenario is that the user can't find the app and gives up. I'm very much in favor of putting the power in developers' hands though.