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Why PBS Won't Do Android
bogaboga writes "You might be wondering why the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service doesn't have a compelling Android footprint. I was wondering too; until they provided the answer. They say, 'Simply put, it’s too complicated for us to even consider an Android app for the first version; we’ll continue to support those viewers with mobile web. ... As we’re focused on the tablet for this project, we’re only designing for the larger screen sizes. But even there, there are a wide range of sizes and aspect ratios. It’s possible to build flexible sizing for these screen layouts, just as we do for the range of desktop web screen sizes. But the flip side to these wide variations is that in a touch experience, ergonomics plays an important role in the design. Navigational elements need to be within easy reach of the edges of the screens since people often are holding their tablets. If the experience is not fine-tuned to each variation the experience would suffer.' They also cite fragmentation. I'm left wondering whether they didn't find support for various screen sizes on Android developer website. Their budget is undoubtedly limited; are their concerns legit? What companies and organizations have developed Android applications that are good to work with on various screen sizes?"
Its possible that the demographic of Android users is not what PBS wants to attract.
All those iApp consumers MUST have more money than sense, they're the ones PBS want!!!
As I've said repeatedly, a public organization choosing a platform with a single hardware and software source when there are options available that give you choice should be considered criminal. This is especially true when that platform has a penchant for censorship.
The problem is that there is too much choice.
And this isn't unique to PBS: the BBC's Android team is three times larger then their iOS team because of the same fragmentation issue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Video-on-Android-Devices-Update
If you only have a fixed amount of resources then you have to decide where to put them, and it's easier and faster for them get something out with iOS. Also, if they're targeting tablets, the iPad owns over two-thirds of the market, and so that's where the most people are.
The PBS made a sound engineering decision IMHO. If you want to blame someone blame Google.
We've been doing some augmented reality games at the studio where I work lately. We build what we need in maya/max and move it to Unity for the build. With iOS, it's about a 10 minute ordeal to build and test it and use Testflight to send it around the office very quickly.
It was so easy that we decided to give it a shot for Android, I mean... it's like doubling your market right? Well... no. First most of the droid phones need special drivers, and they aren't easy to find. Then you have to build based on which version of the droidOS you are using, which on some phones is a pain to get because they don't list it outright. (Confusion between firmware vs. os version, etc. Keep in mind we are game devs not programmers.)
Googleusb doesn't always work properly, we spend hours if not days trying to get a build to work properly on various phones. It's a fucking ordeal let me tell you. We dropped Android support for the project and all future projects as a result. Not worth the time and effort until there is a more unifying experience between them. The cost was X to do iphone development, it's X*15 for droid.
Now this is just one very small segment and one that is not like the environments used by the more elite programmers that visit this site. But if a studio of 20 people who already have it working properly in iOS cannot get it working right on Droid, well.... forget droid.
Our version of perfection is "working without days of hassle to get the right drivers, firmware, etc for *each* phone we want to test it on." If that is who you are decrying, well...
As an artist, it DOES have to be perfect. Sorry you feel differently, but that's the reality. It's programmers like yourself who feel that it *doesn't* have to be perfect that make developing for Droid such a giant pain in the ass for us little guys.
I don't love Apple, but fuck if I want to spend any more late nights and weekends trying to get droid phones to work properly.