fragmentation
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Hulu Plus for Android is available now... for six devices
The good news is that Hulu Plus for Android is on the market, but the bad news is that you may not be able to install it yet. The official Hulu Blog has just been updated with news that six phones -- Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix -- are on the compatible list with "additional device announcements" due later in the year. While there's some crossover with the list of Netflix-compatible devices, it's hardly complete and many flagship phones are still missing. Here's hoping the tweakers can work their magic on that apk and get it running for the rest of us, whether we're shelling out $7.99 a month or just want to leech some Chappelle's Show eps on a free one week trial. If you can't get it running yourself, check out a quick video demo embedded after the break. [Thanks, Tyler, Isaac]
Android Market web store now checks which apps are compatible with your devices
Google has already made some tough moves to tackle fragmentation, but it's clearly still wary of the problem. It's just tweaked the Android Market web store to show users which apps are compatible with which of their gadgets. Of course, compatibility screening was already in place for users who accessed the Market from within their device, but this update should still be of use to those who surf the web store, especially if they're rocking multiple handsets or a phone-plus-tablet combo.
Google chart shows huge growth in Gingerbread use, the other desserts get jealous
If you've spent more than a split-second of your life wondering how many Android devices are running this or that version, you probably wasted too much of it. Still, Google HQ likes to produce a monthly graph that shows exactly what percentage of its devices are using each type of firmware. The king of the hill is Froyo, which is no stunner, but we were much more interested to see that Gingerbread grew leaps and bounds by five percent over the past month. It sure sounds like a small amount, but when you consider this was at a paltry four percent last month, it's much more awe-inspiring to see it skyrocket up to nine. Can we expect these numbers to grow even more next month, since we'll get inundated with Gingerbread on both new and old handsets alike? We're expecting so, but don't tell Honeycomb -- it's getting a bit jealous.
Editorial: Android's problem isn't fragmentation, it's contamination
This thought was first given voice by Myriam Joire on last night's Mobile Podcast, and the simple, lethal accuracy of it has haunted me ever since. All the hubbub and unrest about whether Google is trying to lock Android down or not has failed to address whether Google should be trying to control the OS, and if so, what the (valid) reasons for that may be. Herein, I present only one, but it's arguably big enough to make all the dissidence about open source idealism and promises unkept fade into insignificance.
Android chief Andy Rubin tackles open source qualms, says Honeycomb isn't 'one size fits all'
Google got a lot of flak for withholding the Android 3.0 source code, and plenty more when Businessweek sources claimed the company had set aside its open stance to dictate from a throne, but today the man who would allegedly sit atop the royal seat says it isn't so. Andy Rubin, the man in charge of Android, says that "there are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs" nor "any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture" as have often been rumored before, and that when Honeycomb is finally ready for phones, Google will indeed release its source code. Overall, he claims that Android's position when it comes to open source hasn't changed since day one -- which is nice for those who would like to believe that Google's still sticking to its motto -- but that's not likely to appease companies cut out of the loop simply because they weren't part of the early adopter club. If Google's methods will reduce fragmentation, though, who are we to judge? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Google tightening control of Android, insisting licensees abide by 'non-fragmentation clauses'?
A storm seems to be brewing over the realm of Android development. Bloomberg's Businessweek spies have received word from "a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem" that Google is actively working to gain control and final say over customizations of its popular mobile OS. That might not sound unreasonable, and indeed Google's public position on the matter is that it's seeking to stabilize the platform and ensure quality control, but it does mark a major shift from where Android started -- an open source OS that was also open to manufacturers and carriers to customize as they wish. Not so anymore, we're told, as apparently Mountain View is now demanding that content partnerships and OS tweaks get the blessing of Andy Rubin before proceeding. The alternative, of course, is to not be inside Google's warm and fuzzy early access program, but then, as evidenced by the company recently withholding the Honeycomb source code, you end up far behind those among your competitors who do dance to Google's pipe. Things have gotten so heated, in fact, that complaints have apparently been made to the US Department of Justice. They may have something to do with allegations of Google holding back Verizon handsets with Microsoft's Bing on board, ostensibly in an effort to trip up its biggest search competitor. Another major dissatisfaction expressed by those working with Android code is that Google needs an advance preview of what is being done in order to give it the green light -- which, as noted by a pair of sources familiar with Facebook's Android customization efforts, isn't sitting well with people at all. Google and Facebook are direct competitors in the online space and it's easily apparent how much one stands to gain from knowing the other's plans early. As to the non-fragmentation clauses in licenses, Andy Rubin has pointed out those have been there from the start, but it's only now that Google is really seeking to use them to establish control. The future of Android, therefore, looks to be a little less open and a little more Googlish -- for better or worse. As Nokia's Stephen Elop puts it: "The premise of a true open software platform may be where Android started, but it's not where Android is going."
Android 2.2 is now the dominant version of Google's OS with 61.3 percent of all active devices
Considering that we're about nine months removed from Google's release of Froyo, you'd expect that version of its mobile OS to have been distributed quite widely by now and indeed it has. 61.3 percent of (the many) active Android devices -- handsets and tablets, anything with access to the Market is eligible -- worldwide are now running version 2.2, making it the most prevalent iteration of the software at the moment. Even more encouraging news is that, when taken together with Android 2.1, that group swells to account for more than 90 percent of active Google devices. If you want to look at the reverse, rather moldy, side of the coin, however, you'll note that the latest mobile version of the OS, Gingerbread (2.3), is only on 1 percent of devices, while the absolute finest Android, Honeycomb (3.0), barely scrapes a couple tenths of a percent together. So yes, things are moving inexorably forward, just not as rapidly as some might have hoped.
Verizon iPhone causing fragmentation of iOS apps? We've got the real story
Sometimes, when journalists and bloggers hear something that sounds like a scoop, they rush to publish the story before anyone else can get it. Unfortunately, that sometimes has repercussions. Yesterday, I was talking to ZDNet's James Kendrick at the TeleNav Waypoint event in Cupertino when he mentioned that he had just posted a story about fragmentation in the iOS market. The story suggested strongly that there were changes between the AT&T and Verizon iPhones that would require some developers to create individualized versions of their apps for each carrier. His conclusions were based on a question he had posed earlier in the day to TeleNav personnel, asking why the company had created a Verizon-only version of their iPhone navigation app instead of just re-branding the AT&T Navigator app. The answer from Telenav execs was that they believed it was due to hardware differences. I also overheard that comment and found it quite disturbing. Shortly after Kendrick's post went live, TechCrunch's MG Siegler wrote a sharp-tongued but insightful response, iPhone App Fragmentation FUD Is Looming. In his post, Siegler decried Kendrick's story as "complete nonsense" based on his observation that all apps he had personally tested on the Verizon iPhone -- including a number of GPS-centric apps -- had worked fine. This seemed like a story that could be rapidly resolved one way or another with a bit of targeted reporting. Our beat writer for the navigation app market, Mel Martin, quickly jumped in (at 10 at night) and emailed numerous contacts in the mobile nav sector to see if they had run into any issues with their apps working on the Verizon iPhone. The unanimous answer? No.
Apple on iPad competition: Windows is 'big and heavy,' next-gen Android tablets are still vapor
Apple's COO (and current Steve Jobs stand-in) Tim Cook thinks "there's not much" competition to the company's iPad tablet. When queried about Apple's view on what the rest of the market offers, Cook was brutally candid in describing Windows-driven machines as generally being big, heavy and expensive, while current generations of Android-based slates are in his opinion merely "scaled-up smartphones." While we agree that Windows 7 isn't a terribly touch-friendly affair, we don't know that Cook's comments on Android are quite so pertinent now that Google's tablet-savvy Honeycomb iteration has been unveiled. Then again, he has something to say about the next generation of Android tablets as well, noting that the ones announced at CES lack pricing and release schedules, leading him to conclude that "today they're vapor." Ouch. As a parting shot, Tim took a moment to reaffirm Apple's belief that its integrated approach will always trump the fragmented nature of Android and its plurality of app stores. Hear his comments in full after the break.
Study: Verizon Wireless and HTC most eager to provide Android 2.2 updates
Look, if you buy a carrier-branded Android handset, you should know good and well that you may never see the first Android update. It ain't easy to hear, but as mama always said, the truth ain't always painless. That said, there's still some research you should do before picking a phone and carrier, and ComputerWorld has seemingly done just that for you. The methodology is all explained down in the source link, but the long and short of it is this: in the last half of 2010, Verizon upgraded 33 percent of its sub-2.2 phones to Froyo, while Sprint updated just 28.6 percent of its stable and T-Mobile blessed only 12.5 percent of its phones with the new digs. AT&T bashers should take note, as Ma Bell didn't update a single one of its nine Android phones during the June-December 2010 time period. Yeah, ouch. Over on the handset side, we've got HTC gifting half of its devices with Froyo, while Motorola comes in second with 15.4 percent and Samsung third with 11.1 percent. No matter how you slice it, it's a depressing study to look at, and it probably makes your decision to skip over a Nexus One seem all the more idiotic in retrospect. But hey, at least there's the Nexus S to console you... if you're willing to sign up with T-Mob, that is.
Visualized: the real Android fragmentation
It's been staring you in the face all this time. The Android fragmentation that not only threatens, but dooms Google's mobile OS: the buttons are always in different places. How will we ever cope? [Thanks, Drummertist]
Android 2.x now accounts for 83 percent of all active Googlephones
We're not totally sure that Android 2.1 users will be happy to be bundled in with 2.2 consumers -- after all, there's plenty in Froyo that's not available on Eclair -- but the fact remains that a cool 83 percent of actively used Android phones right now run one of the two latest iterations. A reminder is merited to say that by "active" we mean those that accessed the Android Market over the foregoing two weeks -- which might have a slight bias toward over-representing the newer phones with folks either abandoning their Cupcake and Donut handsets or simply not searching for new apps for them. Either way, we reckon it's good to see such nice big slices taken up by Android's most advanced versions, it seems almost a shame that Gingerbread's arrival will soon disrupt things all over again. For now, we're off to our delicatessen, all this food talk's given us the munchies. [Thanks, Dan]
Rovio feels the burn of Android fragmentation, plans 'light' version of Angry Birds
So, it's real after all, huh? Android fragmentation is making its way into the news again, and this time it counts. Rovio, developer of a little-known title called "Angry Birds," has just penned a new blog post detailing the night terrors that have come with coding a single program to work on a cornucopia of platforms. In the weeks since Angry Birds was released to Android users everywhere, the company has been inundated with performance complaints, mostly from users with older / underpowered Android devices or phones using Android 1.6 or earlier. A laundry list of smartphones have now been added to the "unsupported" list (shown in full after the break), but thankfully for you, a "lightweight" version of the game is in the works. According to Rovio, that build won't reduce the number of levels (or amount of fun / frustration, for that matter), but will instead be optimized for dawdling processors and Android versions that have been helplessly malformed by carriers. Nice going, guys. [Thanks, Justin]
Dissecting Android's openness
Oh, Steve Jobs, you certainly do know how to get tongues wagging. During last quarter's earnings call he attacked Google's stance that Android is the superior mobile OS because it is "open," restating the debate into terms of "integrated versus fragmented" instead -- with iOS on the integrated side, of course. He went so far as to cite Tweetdeck's analysis that it had to deal with "more than one hundred" flavors of Android when developing its Twitter client -- something that seems to have ruffled its feathers. Google's Andy Rubin responded with a rather elegant tweet (shown at the top of this article) that claims to demonstrate just how open Android really is, although our own Victor Agreda Jr wasn't convinced of the relevance. However the real story of how open Android is and isn't -- and of what that means -- is far more complex than can be captured in a tweet.
TweetDeck CEO continues backlash against Jobs
Steve Jobs' amateur sleuthing last night brought up that gorgeous TweetDeck chart showing the vast variety of Android handsets out there, which the Apple CEO used to illustrate the "daunting challenge" he perceives developers have to face when creating apps that work across all devices and OS builds for the platform. Only problem with his assertion (aside from Steve calling the company TwitterDeck)? His opposite number on the TweetDeck team thinks nothing could be further from the truth: "we only have 2 guys developing on Android TweetDeck so that shows how small an issue fragmentation is." So that's Andy Rubin and Iain Dodsworth, any other company chief interested in taking Jobs down a notch?
Advent Vega tablet won't come with Android Market, might get it as part of Gingerbread update (video)
Lack of Google's official app store has been a thorn in the side of would-be Android tablet makers for a good long while, and it looks like the Tegra 2-powered Advent Vega will be no exception when it hits the high street tomorrow. Electricpig took the £249 device for a spin, chatting up Advent product manager Adam Lockyer the whole time, and discovered that while the 10-inch tablet will come with the 5,000-app-strong Archos AppsLib store, it won't have Android Market at launch. "The plan is that when you get to January time, there's a new release of Android and you'll be able to get the marketplace on this product," Lockyer said, suggesting that maybe -- just maybe -- the availability of Android Market itself might be one of the fragmentation issues Google intends to fix in Gingerbread. Wouldn't that be nice? Video after the break. [Thanks, Chak I.]
Visualized: TweetDeck Beta usage chart beautifully showcases Android diversity
Some, like our own Paul Miller, call it "Android fragmentation." Some call it downright gorgeous. The hard-working developers behind TweetDeck call it "extreme fragmentation." The chart shown above demonstrates the breakdown of the 36,427 beta users of the outfit's famed Twitter application for Android, and the company confessed that they were "shocked [in a good way] to see the number of custom ROMs, crazy phones and general level of customization / hackalicious nature of Android." Hit the source link for the full spread, and be sure to holler if you're included somewhere in the mix. [Thanks, Heath]
Intel says no MeeGo phones until first half of 2011, Nokia just shrugs
While Nokia remains mum about the status of its first MeeGo handset, Doug Fisher, Vice President of Intel's Software and Solutions Group and General Manager of Systems Software Division, is being decidedly more talkative. According to an interview published by Forbes, MeeGo phones and tablets are in the works but we'll have to wait until 2011 to handle them. Specifically, Fisher says that MeeGo based cellphones won't debut until the first half of next year, possibly at a large industry trade show. Hmm, could that be Mobile World Congress by any chance, scheduled for February 2011? It's also worth noting that Fisher's timeline coincides with plans for a MeeGo 1.2 release tentatively scheduled for sometime around the end of April. This is of course disappointing -- especially after seeing Nokia's amazing looking MeeGo-based N9 (pictured) in that supposed leak. Though it's hardly unexpected given all the executive level changes at Nokia. Remember, back in December Nokia had promised to "deliver" a Maemo 6 powered mobile computer in the second half of 2010. That promise was then seemingly reiterated when the joint MeeGo initiative was announced in February (MeeGo being the union of Maemo and Intel's Moblin). It was during that announcement that Intel and Nokia promised to "launch" MeeGo devices from Nokia and other manufactures in 2010. We took that to mean retail delivery, not just a product announcement. In fact, we've already seen the first MeeGo tablet -- the WeTab -- ship in Germany. And Fisher says that other MeeGo devices like netbooks and Internet Connected TVs are still on track to ship this year. Regardless of the semantics, we just want to see Nokia get this right, especially as MeeGo looks to be Nokia's big play to win back the US market. If they don't get this right, well, Nokia might not get a second chance -- not with Android rapidly maturing, Windows Phone 7 set to launch, and HP getting ready to put its muscle behind webOS. Let's give Skillman some time to perfect the user experience, shall we?
Android 2.x now on 70 percent of all active Android phones
Time to get down and boogie if you think the Android fragmentation issue is overblown. Google has dropped its latest platform version stats and Android 2.2, aka Froyo, has managed to corner a healthy 28.7 percent of all active Googlephones (those that accessed the Market within the two weeks leading up to September 1), rapidly closing the gap on version 2.1 and nearly matching in number the handsets still stuck on the Cupcake or Donut diet. When you consider that back in May those pesky 1.5 and 1.6 versions were on a whopping 62 percent of Android mobiles, you'll probably agree that phone makers seem to be getting their act together in terms of delivering Google's latest wares in a timely fashion. Who'd have thought it, the more practice they have, the better they're getting at their jobs!
Google: Android fragmentation 'is a boogeyman, a red herring'
Google's Dan Morrill, open source and compatibility program manager in the Android team, just penned a lengthy diatribe against the very concept of fragmentation on the official Android Developers Blog, basically saying it doesn't exist. Actually, the language is a little more colorful: "Because it means everything, it actually means nothing, so the term is useless. Stories on 'fragmentation' are dramatic and they drive traffic to pundits' blogs, but they have little to do with reality. 'Fragmentation' is a bogeyman, a red herring, a story you tell to frighten junior developers. Yawn." Sure, as Android goes, the term "fragmentation" has meant moderately different things in different contexts over the past couple years -- fair enough. But the fact remains that releasing six major revisions of any platform within the span of 19 months (four of which are in heavy user circulation) is unprecedented and potentially unsettling to manufacturers and consumers alike. Your average Joe isn't going to understand why, for example, his HTC Hero that he bought a few months back can't use the Buzz widget or some of the cooler features in Google Maps, and Google hasn't done a very good job of explaining or justifying it, other than by blocking incompatible apps and updates from being visible in the Market.
