87% of Android developers think fragmentation is a problem, survey finds

By on Apr 4, 2011 at 3:04 PM
mobile April 4, 2011

The debate surrounding Android fragmentation continues to draw attention, and the issue resurfaced on Monday following the results of a recent survey. According to Baird analyst William Powers, roughly 87% of Android developers believe that fragmentation is a problem for the Android platform. 57% feel Android’s fragmentation problem is either “huge” or “meaningful,” and about 30% agree that it is a problem to a lesser degree. Google said this past November that the overwhelming majority of Android devices — 77% — run Android 2.1 or Android 2.2, but developers apparently still feel that the existence of multiple Android versions in the market at the same time is less than ideal. What’s more, the company’s recent decision to provide limited early access to upcoming Android builds for partners whose plans for the software are approved by Google suggests that the company views fragmentation as more of a problem than it might convey publicly.

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  • Anonymous

    Where are the numbers? How many developers were surveyed?

    • http://www.techno-update.com techno-update

      I agree, they should have. But I am happy to see the numbers.

    • BT

      The numbers are in the link – 250 working developers

      • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

        Oh shit someone read the article.

  • Scott

    I see it as no problem. But I also own a Nexus One ;)

  • http://twitter.com/simoncabron Simon Cabron

    It’s good to see android giving it 101%!!

    • Yesyesyes

      sounds like bad fabrication to me, this should not add up to 101%

      • sirpaul

        Rounding…if the percentages are 11.8, 25.6 and 62.6 they will be written as 12, 26 and 63, which add up to 101%.

  • Anonymous

    Dev’s gotta suck it up. Android’s the most popular platform, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. If they don’t want to put in the hours to force compatibility then they should GTFO.

    • Anonymous

      They can always develop for Apple… they’ll certainly make more money over there!

      • Anonymous

        Devs for Android actually make more money. Look at Rovio for example, they’re making big time money from Android, just because of ads.

      • Anonymous

        You have no idea what the collective ad revenues are for Android developers, and you certainly can’t extrapolate using one of the most popular apps. Nice try, though.

      • Anonymous

        Sorry dude, but it’s not just iOS that pays more–dev revenues on RIM and Symbian were higher in 2010 than on Android as well.

    • http://twitter.com/SpideyRules99 Scott Curry

      And how exactly is Android the most “popular” platform??? iOS still WAYYY outsells android by a mile! Where are YOUR facts?

      • Anonymous

        Ummm, you might want to first explain to kyle4miller what a “fact” is. His definition of “fact” is “I’ll just make things up to support my argument.”

        Android is the leader among modern phones in smartphone marketshare, but the Android platform is not the leader vs iOS collectively (which adds the iPod Touch and the iPad; has both a greater install base and a greater daily sell-through rate. But yes, if you limit yourself to smartphones, Android holds the largest marketshare. Android OEMs aren’t making any money, but that’s the price of supporting the “most popular (smartphone) platform.”

  • http://twitter.com/RaymondK RaymondK

    Fragmentation is a problem because users are stupid…seriously. The problem with fragmentation is that some devices can’t run certain programs from the market. That wouldn’t be a problem, as most devs tend to list what is not supported, but idiotic people refuse to read. And worse further, when something doesn’t work that is clearly labeled won’t work, people down rate it and leave bad feedback. This is where fragmentation is a problem. Good apps getting low ratings because idiotic users don’t read.

    • Invid

      Blaming your customers is never a recipe for a successful business.

      Users should never see an application that won’t work on their device, so what they post in reviews is a valid complaint. If it’s proving difficult for developers to ensure that their software works as advertised on a wide variety of Android devices, then that’s Google’s problem.

      Blaming devs is a bad recipe for a platform vendor too.

      You can feel free to disagree, but in my opinion, the majority of those that do are just sticking their heads in the sand and that’s not doing Android any favours. This is a plaform issue as long as the customers and devs feel it’s an issue.

      • Anonymous

        I agree, the relative app store should be sorting this for the end user and developer. RIM Has very much the same problem and it was quite the mess during the first few months of 6.0, Android is no different with each revision.

        Platforms thrive on ease of use for the majority of owners, ask any iOS customer. Even msft has seen the light and avoided app incompatibility on WP so all the others need to step up for their customers.

      • http://twitter.com/RaymondK RaymondK

        I completely disagree with you. Let’s say I manufacturer a universal remote. But my remote will not work with Samsung TVs. If I write this on the packaging “Not compatible with Samsung TVs”, then I am NOT to blame when a stupid customer purchases something that is clearly labeled WILL NOT WORK. I do not blindly defend every dev out there. There are plenty that writ crap apps, and they get rated so accordingly. But often than not I will come across an app than needs say 2.2 to run correctly (and will say so in the description) and the reviews are littered with Glaxay S owners 1-star rating and bashing an app as “Force Closes” when the app is actually quite good. Yes, in a perfect world we would all be on 2.3 the second it releases and so on. But that is not the case. And since it’s not, we need a fail safe. What is the fail safe? It’s called RTFI! Unfortunately most don’t and good devs get punished for it.

      • invid

        That’s a poor example.

        The Android situation is more like buying a universal remote at the Samsung store that doesn’t work with all Samsung TVs. The TVs are all under the same branding umbrella, like Android, and it’s not unreasonable to expect them to work without having to read model numbers.

        I agree that there are bad devs out there, but that will always be the case no matter the platform. The problem is when the good devs lack the tools to protect their customers from poor experiences. There’s really no excuse for forcing users to read compatibility lists before purchasing an app. That should be handled by the platform provider. In any case, the user should not see apps that are not intended for their device. Full stop.

        You’ll notice I’m not blaming devs for not covering every possible device out there. I recognize that under Android in its current form, that’s not possible. I am saying that Google’s letting them down by not providing a better environment for them to conduct business.

        The better, long term solution is to prevent a situation where the apps fail to work in the first place. Blaming customers for not reading compatibility lists or devs for not testing 20 devices on various firmwares is not the way forward.

    • Tedkord

      How difficult would it be for a dev to insert coding on install that checks the OS version, and if it dosn’t support it pops up a message that this app is not designed to work on this version of the OS and exit out?
      Nevermind the fact that unsupported apps shouldn’t even show up for users in the marketplace.

      Lazy developers blaming users is no way to run a business.

      • Anonymous

        This is lazy Google. Google should be the one managing these checks because they know best how to check. It should Google standardizing it and not pushing it to the developers!

        Would you have a nice easy call from Google, or bunch of random implementations bloating every app and doesn’t guarantee they even check it it right, nor in a forward compatible fashion.

    • Anonymous

      Wait, the market isn’t smart enough to know what version you have, and filter out newer software that was developed to target platforms more recent than yours? If so, that’s … kind of lame.

      • http://twitter.com/mikedgDroid Mike DG

        The market is smart enough. It’s the developers that are not. It’s about a one line change to enable filtering based on the API version which directly ties to the OS version.

    • numetheus

      Fragmentation is a problem regardless because of the sheer diversity of hardware that Android is available on. The problem is still there even if users read specs first. Developers who write resource intensive software will write apps that will work on device A but not B. Even if users were smarter, fragmentation us still there from a developer standpoint where they can’t sell to all users running android unless they write for the least common denominator.

  • http://twitter.com/BigC_13 Colton Maier

    The chart adds up to 101%, always a trustworthy source if they can do complex math

    • Joel

      Percentages were rounded, it’s called elementary math and is apparently something you cannot grasp.

    • http://twitter.com/trick202 Rich Fletcher

      What else did you do to try to discredit the figures?

      The first step to solving the problem is to admit that it exists in the first place.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

    Perspectively, bringit, and the gnome are probably circle-jerking to this article.

    • Bringit

      I find the truth to be a good thing. You can choose to live in a fantasy world where android fragmentation does not exist.

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

        Did I say fragmentation didn’t exist? I just commented on how much pleasure it brings you 3.
        Much better things happen in my fantasy world than a denial of mobile OS fragmentation.

      • Bringit

        Yeah, we read above your fantasy of 3 posters in here jerking each other off to “climax”. What a sick fook you are.

    • Anonymous

      I’m not familiar with “circle-jerking”. . . perhaps you can explain to us all exactly what it is?

      “Climax”? You’re dating yourself.

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

        It’s where the 3 of you sit in a circle or triangle, with your left hand stroking bringit and your right stroking the gnome. They are doing the same with their hands, thus creating a circle of dudes getting their jollies off to articles about android fragmentation.
        Dating myself as being born in 84? The kids aren’t saying climax anymore? I didn’t want to be crass.

      • Bringit

        Gayest post ever.

    • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

      Walter, you and I both that it’s iOS that is fragmented. The first gen iPhone from 2007 still doesn’t have 4.0 or a FFC. that is ridiculous.

  • http://twitter.com/homescrub homescrub

    Hmm, Android 2.2 has been out for almost a year. Some phones, like the Samsung Captivate, are still on 2.1.

    Why? Because AT&T won’t push the updates. Or – Samsung just loves not giving a shit.

    AT&T Android users might not see 2.3 until Next year.

  • Anonymous

    I didn’t believe in the fragmentation boogyman until I published my first app and found out the hard way that the skins the manufacturers put on their devices can modify the end result of a lot of code that Google designed.
    There is no ‘right answer’ to this problem either with Google sitting on the fence or simply not clarifying what the expected result should be regarding the results of running said code.
    This makes developing an app an absolute nightmare as you have to tweak it for multiple devices and hope you can find people with a variety of devices so you can beg them to beta test your software before releasing it to the ‘wilds’.
    As an example that I’m familar with, taking pictures on every device is so very different, HTC Sense gets different results when the picture is completed than other devices so I had to do a LOT of searching to find out why my software was working perfect on my Samsung and wouldn’t even start on my beta tester’s Evo.

    I believe the problem is Android’s growing pains, it grew so fast so quickly that Google did not have a chance to iron out all the ‘grey areas’ regarding their APIs and that left manufacturers doing whatever they wanted to release their product. This leaves developers trying to pick up the slack and get everyone on the same page.

    I love Android but it’s a huge problem and one that will be increasingly difficult to fix and get everyone (manufacturers) on the same page. Fragmentation is less about what OS the devices are running but more about what ‘adjustments’ the manufacturers have made. This is probably why Google is becoming more strict with Honeycomb and beyond.

    • Bringit

      Walter Sobchak is probably jerking on his face to your post.

  • SetApart4Christ

    Instead of seeing poll after poll commenting on how much of a problem fragmentation is, I think we need to start asking “Why is there a fragmentation problem?”

    Personally I want to know why phone manufactures feel the absolute need to continuously add custom UI’s that take them months to implement into the newest Android operating system when Google can get the Nexus 1 and Nexus S working so wonderfully without Sense UI, MotoBluir, or whatever the latest bloatware addition is.

    Fragmentation isn’t an Android problem in my mind, its a Manufacturer problem.

  • Anonymous

    2.1-2.3 make up 94% of all android users. Developing is exactly the same for all three. Hardware fragmentation may be more of an issue as some phones are less powerful than others. But that hasn’t stopped people from making PC software or apps that work on the iPhone 3gs.

    • Anonymous

      “Developing is exactly the same for all three.”
      but it isn’t, that is where the REAL problem of fragmentation is. The manufacturers are adjusting their perception of Android and making it difficult for developers to hit that “94%”

  • http://www.techno-update.com techno-update

    That’s what you have to go threw to develop for Android the biggest mobile operating system.

    • sirpaul

      I usually don’t comment on grammar and spelling but….it’s “through” not “threw”. This particular post really confused me because of the wording. As did your first post in reply to “Good_Ole_Pinocchio”.

      • http://www.techno-update.com techno-update

        Thanks, my bad. It’s the Autocorrect I have messes everything up.

      • sirpaul

        No problem. At least you didn’t take it the wrong way like most people!

  • Anonymous

    OMG GUYS! I was given a survey question with 5 possible answers and 4 of them basically said the same thing only to Varying degrees!

    I’m NOT arguing that fragmentation isn’t something a lot of developers worry about, but that question is a Survey fail and creates a HUGE amount of statistical bias.

    Furthermore, how were the respondents selected? Are there additional breakouts of say: Sucessful devs who feel that fragmentation is a problem” or is the only data we’re given the single catch all bucket that includes Rovio/Level up Studios with the spamming “fart” apps?

    Headlines like this might be great for your SEO BGR, but if you want repeat traffic, maybe using a little bit of judgement when it comes to posting these “statistics” would be useful.

    • Anonymous

      Lol. That’s just a dumb thing to say. So If they asked is android fragmentation a problem yes or no answer only. The poll would have only showed that 87% said yes. You would not know that 30% said it was but to a lesser degree.

  • Anonymous

    Aside from questions around methodology: wah. Nobody’s going to force people to throw away old phones, and you can’t rely on an upgrade path. Modularize your applications and design them *knowing* that you have functionality differences between platforms. It’s not rocket science – it is, in fact, no different than developing an application for any other platform that goes through multiple iterations (eg all major operating environments). If it bothers you that much, develop for the lowest common denominator.

  • Scott

    There will always be fragmentation as long as there are different levels of hardware.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

      Yeah but Many Android devices fragmentation have nothing to do with hardware. How long does it take Samsung devices to have the same update as an HTC device with comparable hardware?

  • party

    Hmm Loaded question poll, nice.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BHMB52ZFMATI5KS7D4JT6UU7NA Eric W

    …waiting on goofan (aka apple hater)’s response. 3….2…..1

    • Anonymous

      Goofan, really? Really?

    • Anonymous

      Sorry guys! I’m traveling on business in beautiful California.

  • Dfwtxbear

    This is silly. Apple has been fragment on platforms in past. So has Windows and Linux. People are stirring up hype when we have been developing for different OS, browser, and hardware since the dawn of personal PCs. Just code everything for 2.2 standards since 1.6 is on the way out the door. Add your extended function in separate files and detect version to make them available or not.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

      How as iOS been fragmented to this degree that Android is? Meaning update available for one device but not the other. And not because the hardware can’t support but because the dumb manufacturers mess around with the OS too much? Having different OS versions because of hardware is one thing because all devices will not forever be supported. But be fragmented like Android is something totally different.

      • Jroc869

        wait for it. wait for it…. he didnt say ios DUMBASS he said apple in the past. i wold say you should have read the whole thing but damn it if the first sentence said it all.

  • Anonymous

    The problem has been overblown by many members of the media who are ill informed or are generalizing because a manufacturer or carrier is dragging their feet on an upgrade. Every single Smart Phone OS has fragmentation from Blackberry, to Nokia (Symbian), Windows Mobile/Phone, Web OS, even iOS. Apple has only one phone model so it looks like less of an issue unless you own a iPhone 3G or a first or second generation iPod Touch. Android if free and the newest builds available to all phone manufacturers and carriers. Some older models need to have an EOL date, but other times its a forced artificial EOL or laziness on the part of the manufacturer or the carrier. We need to start blaming them by not spending our money with them and start supporting manufacturers and carriers that upgrade in a fair and timely manner. The blame should not lie with Android or with Google.

    • Anonymous

      its a big difference in comparison to iOS every iphone that has come out in the last 2 years ie the 3gs and iphone 4 are able to upgrade to the latest and greatest of firmware. its android phones that came out in the last 2 weeks thats not on 2.3

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

    Fandroids don’t think there are any problems with Android. Even if Google allows hackers to load apps into the market to hack into your phone.

  • Jroc869

    Awesome and Google already acknowledged this and is trying to take steps to correct it.

  • QNX Please

    Wow.. this is what researchers call a leading question. When 80% of the possible answers point to yes and only 20% to no, its a poor question. Probably commissioned by Apple.

    • Anonymous

      Yes, the survey is Apple’s fault. Of course. /s

  • http://twitter.com/_dreameye Joo Young Park

    I agree with it…
    It’s big problem for Android developers….

  • FragmentMAN

    There are so many android phones now…its gonna turn into Windows Mobile soon

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