Google Android — a Universe of Incompatible Devices 636
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.
LOL (Score:4, Interesting)
Here is some background on the article author: http://www.zangogroup.com/galen.html [zangogroup.com]
Anyone else get the feeling that he is the Pat Goss [goss-garage.com] of the computer world? I.e. getting paid to pretend he knows what he is doing?
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:2, Interesting)
I (proud Nexus One owner) would still take Android over Iphone or Windows phones
something empowering about having more freedom and choice than these 2 locked down and bastardized "platforms" where now i cant even download an app with boobies in it!
PCs all over again (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it just me or is the smartphone market looking exactly like the computer market did in the transition from minicomputers to personal computers? Blackberry and the old Palms are the minis. Then there's the hot shot closed system in the iPhone and the competing disparate open systems in Android, Web OS, and the new Windows Mobile. I'm hoping for a partial repeat of the PC market: Open wins. But hopefully somebody besides Microsoft comes out on top this time. Maybe Amiga will make a comeback on the smart phone!
Who said it was going to be easy? (Score:5, Interesting)
What you think Microsoft just screwed up Windows Mobile on purpose for all those years?
Look at history, Windows Mobile came out swinging strong, kicking butt and taking names, and then it got bogged down in its own ecosytem as it attempted to support an ever wider and wider range and form factors of devices running on more and more different hardware platforms.
Mobile deviecs are far more complicated than desktops, both in terms of the little things (boot loaders!) to the big things (OEM relations!)
Microsoft learned this, I don't see how Google expected to basically copy Microsoft's mobile OS strategy (in every detail except for pricing) and have any less issues.
It is not a problem it is an opportunity. (Score:4, Interesting)
If I didn't already have a job and I had the start up capital I would have already been working on it, but since I have a nice job and no start up capital I leave it up to someone else to develop a business around the Android platform. Currently there is a hodgepodge of unheard of development houses making apps that look like they were developed by undergrads.
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
At least on the Apple store, it is clearly defined in the app description the required OS release, and the platform limitations. Apps will say "requires OS 3" and "Requires iPod Gen 2 or higher."
The problem with Android is that with all the disparate hardware configs, one-off versions of the OS, and lack of a true universal central store, there's no guarantee your device has the hardware requirements to support any given app, and no controls store side to check, or even warn you, as even in less than a year its simply gotten too complicated.
I may not be a fan of the new OS look and feel Microsoft developed for Windows 7 Mobile (whatever they're calling it now), but the strict hardware requirements, limitation on processor/GPU type and speed, and other system configuration, and strict software compatibility rules, should help eliminate most o fthose issues under their platform.
People who wanted the open platform, and had anti-apple simplicity sentiments, got exactly what they asked for; a complicated platform with few rules and lots of security issues.
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
it won't become a problem.
Isn't the cause of these problems due to the fact that people are changing the OS at the source code level?
If the changes to Android from device to device were done instead at an API level, wouldn't these issues be redressed to a significant extent?
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
I completely agree with this statement. Having personally hacked android on to 3 devices that it was never intended to run on, I can say that the Android platform is even more consistent than windows mobile, or the iPhone OS. In fact, its even more consistent than a standard desktop Linux like Ubuntu. Furthermore, Linux (which is of course the pivotally important part of Android) runs on more platforms than any other operating system in existence. Linux itself does more than provide a 'consistent' API, it provides a POSIXly correct API, which is fathoms more than any other mobile OS can say.
As for variations between hardware (e.g. some device supporting multi-touch, some not) - the same API is running on all of them - there are no differences, Android uses what the Linux kernel provides.
Lastly, with respect to different UI features provided by various companies (HTC Sense, MotoBlur, etc), developers target their apps according to a common API. The presentation (the look and feel of the UI) is also done according to a certain API.
This topic really is a non-issue, whoever even brought it up likely forgot to eat their wheaties this morning.
Keep in mind the source (Score:5, Interesting)
Galen Gruman (the writer of the article) used to write for Macworld and is also part of iPhoneInTouch developers group.
This can all be found on his linkin profile. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/galen-gruman/0/37/599 [linkedin.com]
It's something you would want to take with a grain of salt, if he wasn't hounding it with every article he wrote about it. FUD.
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, but the issue is going and buying, say, the new Xperia x10 (which is about to come out, months /after/ the Droid and Nexus One) and then discovering that some app which works on the Droid does not work on the x10, because while the Droid is on 2.0.1, the x10 is on a heavily-modified 1.6. To use your analogy, this is like someone going to go buy a new gaming computer, and then discovering your new system only has a DirectX 8.0 card in it.
Tech-saavy smartphone buyers will know to look at what version of the OS the phone comes with before purchase. However, part of what people are pushing for lately is smartphone adoption outside of the 'traditional' smartphone market. Most of the people I know who have iPhones are not people who previously had Blackberries or Windows Mobile phones; they had little Samsung candybar phones, or Motorola sliders, or whatever. These are not people who want to look at the tech specs of their phones before buying them; they just want a phone that does what it says on the tin, and where they don't have to worry about compatibility and conflict. To them, the Xperia x10 is a /newer/ phone, thus should /have the newer stuff/.
This is where the fragmentation will hurt Android adoption. Someone can go and say, 'well, a new iPhone just came out. It'll be fancier/newer/faster than last year's model, so it can do everything last year's could and then new stuff.' You cannot do that with Android; someone sees the Droid has Facebook integration in the address book, goes 'cool! I want that!' and goes out to buy some even-newer Android phone, only to discover they cannot do the things their friend's Droid could, because their phone is using an older version of Android. To the average consumer, this doesn't make sense; those are both Android phones, and theirs is NEWER! Shouldn't their phone do MORE, not LESS? Etc.
(And let's be honest, even the tech-saavy gadget-addicted folks get unhappy when they don't have the latest and greatest update for their system. You need only check the irate threads at Phandroid or on the Verizon forums about 'when is the Droid getting 2.1?' 'Screw the Droid, when is the Eris getting 2.x at all?' and so on. It makes them annoyed to see that the Droid was promptly supplanted by the Nexus One two months later, and then people who bought the Nexus One now have /that/ being supplanted by the Desire shortly thereafter, etc.)
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
ANALOGY FAIL. [autoblog.com]
Phone Manufacturers Don't Upgrade Software (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
The catch is that the Droid and G1 weren't even released a year apart. DirectX8 was released almost 10 years before DirectX11. .NET3 was released roughly 6 years after Windows 2000.
That's a huge difference, especially considering how much computers have improved in the intervening years. And DirectX8 is quite outdated but nearly every PC game on the market still supports DX9, which was released in 2002.
The fact that there are compatibility issues already with Android is very concerning. What they should be doing is establishing a baseline for compatibility. But then again, phone companies and carriers love consumers replacing their phones on a regular basis, so there's little incentive to promote compatibility.
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
Except that it isn't. Not at all. The hardware may be different, but Windows is Windows (warts and all). If I buy an application that says it'll run on Windows XP/Vista/7 I can be pretty confident that it'll work.
Wait a sec - did you just list 3 versions of Windows?
Yes, I did. Please list all distros of Linux and we'll compare the size of the lists shall we?
Re:Keep in mind the source (Score:3, Interesting)
What's this? Yet another [arstechnica.com] Infoworld writer using their blogs to advance their personal agenda? When is Slashdot going to stop being a lackey for IDG [google.com]?
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
What nonstandard ("alternative" hardware is available on Android devices?
Some may have no keyboard, or a D-Pad instead of a trackball, or a bigger screen, but it's still a limited number of hardware configurations - especially compared to, say, the PC market.
In your example, you'd have to wait for Apple to update their browser as well or use a third party browser (also available in Android from the market.)
When Apple releases a new OS (which includes the browser, in the Android case I was referring to), all of their devices get it... Some may not support all the new functions, but they all get the upgrade.
With Android, some devices get upgrades, others get upgrades later, and some devices don't get upgrades at all.
In this case, it's an "upgrades later" situation, and in the mean time (it could, and probably will, judging by the last update, take months), no alternative browsers that solve the problem are available, because they all use the same engine...
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:2, Interesting)
The toshiba was an x86 core solo dual-booting the Windows 7 RC and Ubuntu 9.04. I threw it into my desktop with an i7 920 (64bit quad core) processor, Raedon 5770, ect, basically a bunch of hardware that didn't exist the last time the drive was booted.
Windows crashed on startup and wouldn't boot, but I was shocked when Ubuntu booted perfectly, connected to the network, and everything seemed to just work.
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
The core marketplace yes, others not so much.
i also understand there's some basic marketplace function that doesn't list apps you don't have API support because it requires a version newer than your installed version, but again, this is limited by the Dev's actually including that logic in their app (or tags, or something), and is also only limited to Google's marketplace, not all marketplaces. I also have no guarantee that when Verizon updates the OS on my device, without my ability to refuse it since apparently they can push those updates OTA (a high security risk I'm sure will be abused sooner rather than later), that my apps might break, and I'l left holding the bag.
Re:Just like desktop linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
I've never seen a single commercial application that tried to scribble libraries outside of the app bundle or "/Library/Application Support/MyApplication" or "$HOME/Library/Application Support/MyApplication". I can think of several dozen examples off the top of my head where I've seen such dependency problems, but every single one of them was an app ported (badly) to Mac OS X from Linux or other UN*X OSes. Basically, it's the result of trying to hack together a quick port without really taking the time to learn how to write software on the platform, and it's a sign of a really lousy application that generally won't get very far.
Feel free to disagree, but please provide a list of commercial apps that misbehave in ways that cause these dependency problems you're complaining about. You might find one or two really obscure ones, but such problems are certainly exceptionally rare. Even the Mac developers who I consider to be bordering on inept don't make the sorts of mistakes you're describing, at least as far as I've seen.....