To many Android devices?

[Sodner]

First off I want Android to succeed. If not because I happen to have one of their phones, then to simply knock Apple down a notch or two.

Too many Android models may chase app-makers away - DailyFinance

I've seen articles related to this, but no threads related to the potential pitfalls of two many different models. We've all seen news and the reports of all the new phones that will be coming to market. How will this affect the Android OS in the future? How hard will it be for developers to create applications that run on all the potential phone models, running potentially a dozen different versions of the OS all at one time? I mean the new Devour is not even out yet and its to be released running version 1.6??

Can Android compete long term with the iPhone because of all this?

 

[New2u]

First off I want Android to succeed. If not because I happen to have one of their phones, then to simply knock Apple down a notch or two.

Too many Android models may chase app-makers away - DailyFinance

I've seen articles related to this, but no threads related to the potential pitfalls of two many different models. We've all seen news and the reports of all the new phones that will be coming to market. How will this affect the Android OS in the future? How hard will it be for developers to create applications that run on all the potential phone models, running potentially a dozen different versions of the OS all at one time? I mean the new Devour is not even out yet and its to be released running version 1.6??

Can Android compete long term with the iPhone because of all this?

This article is over 2 months old. I posted it in the off-topic section i think around the day it came out. I've had the same discussion with quite a few of my friends and people i know. The answer is that, noone really knows. From what everyone has stated, apple is coming out with different sized iphones for other networks (speculative at this point). If they do, they run into the same problems as the other phones. While they are still running the same OS, they have the constraints of other devices, size matters when it comes to apps, you can't take an app for one size and make it for another without modding it some. Same goes for the problem of the ipad and other devices. Only time will tell, but some of the bigger program developers that first wrote off the android operating system, started returning to it, because now it is a good source of income for them. Do i think alot of devices will fail.. yes, i think there will be a clear couple of devices that end up getting the most of developers.

 

[pudah]

First off I want Android to succeed. If not because I happen to have one of their phones, then to simply knock Apple down a notch or two.

Too many Android models may chase app-makers away - DailyFinance

I've seen articles related to this, but no threads related to the potential pitfalls of two many different models. We've all seen news and the reports of all the new phones that will be coming to market. How will this affect the Android OS in the future? How hard will it be for developers to create applications that run on all the potential phone models, running potentially a dozen different versions of the OS all at one time? I mean the new Devour is not even out yet and its to be released running version 1.6??

Can Android compete long term with the iPhone because of all this?

Yeah I think having too many versions of Android out there might pose a problem. A bigger threat would be different modified version. Like 2.1-Verizon, 2.1-Stock and 2.1-AT&T. There will always be a few versions out there because some people keep phones a long time, but there needs to be cohesiveness on what is released with new phones. Old versions of the OS should not be released on a new phone. I get they do it for performance reasons, but this can make people stray.

On another, more important note. Your avatar is awesome. I am going to have to "borrow" it for my phone. If you don't mind having two Pen Droids out there, I would use it here, too.

 

[Sodner]

They say variety is the spice of life, yet Apple has sold like a bazillion phones all being the essentially exact same model.

Sure some people may want a slide out keybaord, but apparently many are happy to get it as-is. So why 10-20 Android phones?

 

[New2u]

They say variety is the spice of life, yet Apple has sold like a bazillion phones all being the essentially exact same model.

Sure some people may want a slide out keybaord, but apparently many are happy to get it as-is. So why 10-20 Android phones?

Well the reason they have sold so many is i think 2 points. 1) They have them for sale in like 10-12 countries if not more. They are open to more of a market then most android phones are. 2) Alot of people like using 1 device to have a as a phone, mp3 player, and whatever else you want it to be.

Seeing as in america, apple messed up and went with at&t. I'm not quire sure how they are rated in other countries. I know in japan or china, they couldn't give them away, they were having buy one get one free sales because they didn't sell, for one reason. The world is an ever changing market, and it wants to be the most technological, apple has limited it's ability to be the top of the market anymore. The inability to have a phone that had a video recorder on it, to us may not be much of an issue, but to many folks in the world, it is an issue. Apple will sell their products, but you can already see a good portion of people that had iphones here and either don't want them anymore, or just because the verizon network doesn't have them. Customization is a big item now adays, and with apple limiting that, they limit their own income.

 

[andrewdoane]

I think it's a problem. One really nice thing about phone apps is that all of them work. It's not like a computer with system requirements or a video game where it has to be the right platform. You go to the app store on iPhone, every single game will work on your phone. Android might be giving that up. I think for that reason Apple will always have the better app store.

Good thing the app store isn't the whole phone.

 

[hookbill]

Doesn't Blackberry have quite a few devices? Storm, Storm2, Bold, several different models of the World and Curve, Tour, and now I think a Tour 2. They all use a variation of the same OS. Why not Android?

 

[New2u]

I think it's a problem. One really nice thing about phone apps is that all of them work. It's not like a computer with system requirements or a video game where it has to be the right platform. You go to the app store on iPhone, every single game will work on your phone. Android might be giving that up. I think for that reason Apple will always have the better app store.

Good thing the app store isn't the whole phone.

The only reason that works at the moment is because they only have 1 device, it's the same size, and same screen as the first one they came out with. The insides are different yes, but that doesn't matter. If they start to come out with different sizes, yes that will make a difference.

 

[cereal killer]

The only reason that works at the moment is because they only have 1 device, it's the same size, and same screen as the first one they came out with. The insides are different yes, but that doesn't matter. If they start to come out with different sizes, yes that will make a difference.

Precisely.....If Motorola goes by way of HTC (hundreds of different models) that will pose a huge problem.

Personally I would hope VZW/Moto are smart enough to understand this. Which I tend to think they are.

 

[Aluminum21]

the fact that all iphones are basically the same is the MAIN reason the apps are so amazing on that phone.


The apps on the droid could be 100x better but that means that all the weaker android phones will be screwed by running these app poorly. So we are stuck with low quality apps.

 

[KevinJ]

I said something in another forum about how soon until we get some apps for Android from the iPhone developers, and the reply was because there are so many different phones - and different settings for each phone (plus OS versions) - that developers are shying away until Android narrow is down, they aren't gong to do much.

Which sucks for me, because I was looking for astronomy & photography apps like they have for iPhone.

 

[nolanandy]

IMO, apple will loose the battle in term of total number of phones using iPhone OS vs Android OS. However, their apps would probably better than ours mainly because they control everything from hw to sw. If they come out with a new phone, saying larger screen and diff hw spec compare to their current one, but they can do a same thing to what they did to the iPad. iPad can run all iPhone's apps without any problems. On Android, it will be harder because there are too many version of OS out there, and Google and phone maker have not done a good job to maintain it . Dev might not like that.

 

[christim]

We've all seen news and the reports of all the new phones that will be coming to market. How will this affect the Android OS in the future? How hard will it be for developers to create applications that run on all the potential phone models, running potentially a dozen different versions of the OS all at one time?
Can Android compete long term with the iPhone because of all this?

I don't remember the recent numbers but I read something that stated Android market share a year ago, now, and where it would be by 2012. It doubled in the 4th quarter of 2009. Let me Google that for you (gotta admit, that is a cool site!)

Does anyone think Linux will be (is) successful? Anyone want to guess how many different flavors of Linux are out there? For those who don't know Android is running on top of Linux. How many more apps exist now compared to 6 months ago? While its true there is some garbage in the market the Apple store has its fair share of fart apps too.

Competition is good for us. It keeps the price down and keeps the features and service up. I do see the hardship of supporting your app when it runs on the iphone, Pre's web/os, Blackberry's Rim, Android, Win platforms and then various versions on those too. So while a developer may shy away from creating a great game on the android system that would take the X dollars we had to spend you can be sure someone else will be eyeing that X and may do it instead. As the number of users grow and the saturation grows so will come apps by bigger companies.

Finally, if we only could have one version of Android how would we make it better and support newer hardware?

 

[Liderc]

I have to agree that having too many phones can cause problems within the company. Iphone is a great example of why having one central device is a good idea. It allows people to work on honing a device to perfection, because they can spend more time on one device instead of a dozen.

I don't think the Droid will be the #1 android device for long, I imagine in 6 months there will be a better version of it and hopefully they will figure out as Apple did that you get customers by creating a quality phone, not the next best thing.