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[perkiset]

This is what I'd been imagining would come to pass - the very thing that makes Android strong may well be one if it's weakest links:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/android-fragmentation/

It's a very M$ like complaint ... "has to work on any hardware..." IMO this will lead to apps that work here, but not there - because the developers just don't want to support (those other phones). Kind of like apps that only run on Vista or XP or whatever... real PIA. A shame.

[isthisthingon]

Yep.  It's what Windows has had to contend with where OS X enjoys known target hardware. 

For developers, Apple’s autocratic ways may be frustrating, but they can pay off.

“Apple maintains an iron grip on what they do and there’s an advantage to that,” says Kelly Schrock, owner of Fognl, which has three apps on the Android market. “IPhone developers don’t have to worry about fragmentation and creating apps for the iPhone is much easier.”

It's not easy.  Do what's hard, do what's right and rise to the challenge of complexity.  User experience is key but so is the functional extent of the offering.  They should balance each other out, not rule the day

[kurdt]

If I was iPhone app company thinking to expand to Android... this news would make me think twice.

I have never understood why open source people tend to fuck up in very obvious issues. I think there's nothing wrong in that open source license could force devs to write compatible code between all versions. You can modify it but make sure you modify it so that all other Androids can run it too and then some guidelines how to code that it's compatible. Same thing with Firefox extensions or addons or what the fuck they are called nowadays... they don't usually work properly with user compiled "Firefoxes".

 

[perkiset]

I think that's backward's Kurdt ... clearly, every developer, being the lazy sumbitches they are, would prefer to write a single codebase that works across platform ... it's the hardware and enablement of API traps in each phone (as well as the carrier's ROM) that make each and every phone different ... and then throw in that you could have the same phone with different revs of 'droid and you've got a real charlie foxtrot. I'd not code anything there, for the exact same reason that I've never coded for a phone before the iPhone - you'd have to imagine that your smart enough to wager your coding time against (that) phone ... and hope that it's a home run.

@ ITTO: 'Twould be nice if there was a happy medium, I agree. But in fairness, way smarter people that us developed both the 'droid platform and the iPhone ... I'd figure they'd have thunk it out already. My guess is that each of these two is THEIR best guesses. 

[kurdt]

I think that's backward's Kurdt ... clearly, every developer, being the lazy sumbitches they are, would prefer to write a single codebase that works across platform ... it's the hardware and enablement of API traps in each phone (as well as the carrier's ROM) that make each and every phone different ... and then throw in that you could have the same phone with different revs of 'droid and you've got a real charlie foxtrot. I'd not code anything there, for the exact same reason that I've never coded for a phone before the iPhone - you'd have to imagine that your smart enough to wager your coding time against (that) phone ... and hope that it's a home run.

I don't get it. I basically said the exact same thing you just did and you said mine was backwards My point was that there should be clearly defined rules so that developers wouldn't have to code same thing many times and it would be forced with license. I guess what I'm suggesting is some sort of forced graceful degradation for all apps made for certain platform. If your phone doesn't have feature X, it let's you know but it still loads and "works". This is the case with iPhone right now. I have 2G that doesn't have GPS but still those apps that use GPS work on my phone but without those features.

[perkiset]

LOL ... Google takes a shot at a phone using the Apple model of design discipline. If done right, IMO, this is the first version of a 'droid phone that could really pose a challenge to the iPhone because of the installed developer base, ease of deployment for new code/app store stuff ... this could make things interesting.

There won't be any negotiation or compromise over the phone's design of features - Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google's pure vision of what a phone should be.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/11/18/google-branded-phone-coming-early-next-year/

[perkiset]

I think there's nothing wrong in that open source license could force devs to write compatible code between all versions. You can modify it but make sure you modify it so that all other Androids can run it too and then some guidelines how to code that it's compatible.

... I was responding to this ... I thought what you were saying, was that it's the developers that are not writing cohesively. Perhaps I misread ... ?

[kurdt]

I think there's nothing wrong in that open source license could force devs to write compatible code between all versions. You can modify it but make sure you modify it so that all other Androids can run it too and then some guidelines how to code that it's compatible.

... I was responding to this ... I thought what you were saying, was that it's the developers that are not writing cohesively. Perhaps I misread ... ?

What happens now is that phone developer takes Android and modifies it for the phone. The phone has unique features X, Z and Y so phone developer writes their own software to control them. Then phone is out and app developer wants to write app for features X and Z. But because there isn't forced guidelines how to write the app, app developer will write it in his/hers way so that it most likely only loads up in this phone. This is almost the exact problem that plagues Linux right now. Million different distros and apps are not compatible between distros without modifications. And to me, this is BIG design flaw in the whole system, be it Linux or Android.

But yes, I understand that this is complicated issue and isn't very simple to solve. But still I suspect it will become one of the biggest drawbacks with Android if it isn't solved soon.

[perkiset]

Then we're on exactly the same page ... and I completely agree.