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People are forgetting the state of mobile OS ecosystem before Android came along. Samsung, Sony, Motorola were using Java ME but you cannot build just one app

by dannyr 13y ago

People are forgetting the state of mobile OS ecosystem before Android came along. Samsung, Sony, Motorola were using Java ME but you cannot build just one app that works for all manufacturers. If Android doesn't exists, we'll have 1 OS for each manufacturer because Apple would not share their OS with others. I'll take a fragmented Android ecosystem over a fragmented mobile OS ecosystem any day. I develop Android apps for a living. For a lot of devices (e.g. HTC One, Nexus 4, S3), there is very little differences in code, if at all. Highlighting different versions is also misleading. Not much difference in the APIs between 4.0 and 4.3

protomyth 13y ago
> If Android doesn't exists, we'll have 1 OS for each manufacturer because Apple would not share their OS with others. I'm sure Microsoft would have been more than eager to take up the slack, or perhaps Palm would have pivoted that way. I cannot remember what the update cycle was like on Microsoft phones. Perhaps the OS version would have still been an issue. I do seem to remember some upgrade blocks on the 7 version.
- dannyr 13y ago
  There was Windows Mobile but phone manufacturers didn't like it so they still built their own.
- rsynnott 13y ago
  > I cannot remember what the update cycle was like on Microsoft phones. For Windows Mobile? In almost all cases, they never got upgrades at all. The iPhone was pretty unusual in its day as a non-computer consumer electronics device that got substantial software changes after release.
clarky07 13y ago
>Highlighting different versions is also misleading. Not much difference in the APIs between 4.0 and 4.3 there are big differences between 2.3 and 4.0 though. 34% are still on 2.3, and that is sad. With Android you really have to just cut your losses and realize you can't make it perfect for everyone. Target the top 70% and do the best you can. Handle the top few screen sizes and api versions and move on.
- tadfisher 13y ago
  The numbers don't speak for themselves: how many 2.3 users are actively purchasing apps/services? Are people buying a $60 Android phone for use on a prepaid plan likely to purchase/install your particular app? The economics may favor dropping 2.3 support regardless of the overall install base. Then again, for certain situations, they may not. Of the two wildly different apps I work on, one has 40% of users on 2.3, and the other has 10%.

by dannyr 13y ago

protomyth 13y ago

> If Android doesn't exists, we'll have 1 OS for each manufacturer because Apple would not share their OS with others. I'm sure Microsoft would have been more than eager to take up the slack, or perhaps Palm would have pivoted that way. I cannot remember what the update cycle was like on Microsoft phones. Perhaps the OS version would have still been an issue. I do seem to remember some upgrade blocks on the 7 version.

dannyr 13y ago
There was Windows Mobile but phone manufacturers didn't like it so they still built their own.
rsynnott 13y ago
> I cannot remember what the update cycle was like on Microsoft phones. For Windows Mobile? In almost all cases, they never got upgrades at all. The iPhone was pretty unusual in its day as a non-computer consumer electronics device that got substantial software changes after release.

clarky07 13y ago

>Highlighting different versions is also misleading. Not much difference in the APIs between 4.0 and 4.3 there are big differences between 2.3 and 4.0 though. 34% are still on 2.3, and that is sad. With Android you really have to just cut your losses and realize you can't make it perfect for everyone. Target the top 70% and do the best you can. Handle the top few screen sizes and api versions and move on.

tadfisher 13y ago
The numbers don't speak for themselves: how many 2.3 users are actively purchasing apps/services? Are people buying a $60 Android phone for use on a prepaid plan likely to purchase/install your particular app? The economics may favor dropping 2.3 support regardless of the overall install base. Then again, for certain situations, they may not. Of the two wildly different apps I work on, one has 40% of users on 2.3, and the other has 10%.