| michael_stutzer said: I am tired of this fragmentation argument. All Android phones run the same apps with a few exceptions as long as they are powerful enough. Sure there are problems here and there but it doesn't really mean much. I think Apple fragmentation is worse because Apple intentionally prevents older users from getting new features, not because those phones aren't capable but because to promote new phones. |
And I'm tired of *this* argument. Apple "withholds" some features, yes. But they generally do it for hardware reasons. Siri isn't on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 because of hardware... The company added on board hardware to deal specifically with the background noise requirements of Siri and they haven't added voice activation to any product that does not have that hardware. Flyover probably doesn't work on older hardware because the software is demanding. It's not terribly surprising to see a company remove features that could seriously tax the hardware after going through the iPhone 3G/iOS4 slowdown fiasco.
Android's fragmentation isn't a serious problem... Yet. But it IS a looming issue that needs to be resolved. You can't expect developers to support 500 hardware configurations, 50 different skins, AND five different operating systems, especially when those customers spend about 1/4 of the money on apps that their iOS counterparts spend. By allowing too much freedom with their OS, Google could very well be backing themselves into a corner as everyone goes off in different directions with their software. Google has to work to streamline their OS for developers or those developers will turn to the friendlier confines of the App Store or Windows Store.
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