Google Android — a Universe of Incompatible Devices

snydeq writes "Galen Gruman writes about the dark side of the recent flood of Android smartphones: versions run amok. 'That flood of options should be a good thing — but it's not. In fact, it's a self-destruction derby in action, as phones come out with different versions of the Android OS, with no clear upgrade strategy for either the operating system or the applications users have installed, and with inconsistent deployment of core features. In short, the Android platform is turning out not to be a platform at all, but merely a starting point for a universe of incompatible devices,' Gruman writes. 'This mess leaves developers and users in an unstable position, as each new Android device adds another variation and compatibility question.' In the end, Google's naive approach to open sourcing Android may in fact be precipitating this free-for-all — one that might ultimately turn off both end-users and developers alike." As reader donberryman points out, you can even put Android onto some Windows Mobile phones, now.

Comments

Re:Just like desktop linux.

[Sandbags]

Unless of course it requires hardware level interfaces that don't exist in your machine, leverage drivers or hardware you don't have, leverage legacy APIs no longer included in the OS, leverage "features" that were patched and the back door the app used is now locked, needs more resources than you have available, or in general is poorly written or buggy, or you have a virus or other system corruption that causes issues, and a hundred other reasons.

I can attest to the fact that I have dozens of apps designed even for XP, let alone NT/2K, that don't work in Vista, let alone 7. I even have apps written for XP that don't work in SP3, and many, many that require SP2 or higher.