Fragmentation vs. Obsolescence In the Android Ecosphere

whisper_jeff writes "Engadget has an interesting article up discussing whether or not Android is fragmenting. While the article discusses the concept that it may be more about handsets becoming obsolete at a dramatic pace rather than the OS fragmenting, it also begins by noting that there are currently five different versions of Android on the market, which implies there is a notable degree of fragmentation. Regardless of it being fragmentation or handsets becoming obsolete to new feature sets in a terribly short period of time, I believe this development cycle could turn casual consumers away and hurt Android's chances for long-term mainstream success."

Comments

Re:iPhone fragmentation

[ducomputergeek]

I know we're dropping 1G iPhones and iPhone OS 2.x when the 4G comes out. By that time, the original iPhone users will likely have upgraded with new contracts. It makes the SDLC easier to adapt to as we've had a planned EOL schedule for over a year now with legacy iphone apps.

We've been developing for Android for a year now and we've gone from two versions to now 5 different OS's in 12 months. We've bought about $2500 worth of iPhones and iPod Touches since 2008. We've spent over twice that since august of last year. And while it may be "developer" friendly, it's not nearly as QA testing friendly thanks to all the different devices from different manufactures with different hardware features and different UI specs.