what do you think? Google Android's self-destruction derby begins

[jkwakopo]

Google Android's self-destruction derby begins | Mobilize - InfoWorld

i kinda agree... too many fragmentation within our os... do you guys think this can be a potential problem?

[armeddroid]

Google Android's self-destruction derby begins | Mobilize - InfoWorld

i kinda agree... too many fragmentation within our os... do you guys think this can be a potential problem?

This debate is a 3Dimesional debate.
On one side, our competitor, Apple mostly a locked market an OS that goes to everyphone.
Another side is 1.5-2.1 firmwares scattered everywhere
And all these firmwares are not even coming to certain phones.
That being said...
what happens to the other phones?
once 2.1 is out, is Droid finished after that? Will it get anymore updates?

Look e.g. the Motorola Devour
Its running 600mhz and is on 1.5 and yet with blur...
If you saw the 7-9min video of Devour, i have to say, i am impressed with the speed.
So...idk
i am wondering myself....

[Martin030908]

I do hope to see, sooner than later, Google streamline Android into a single OS version and move forward from there.

[DigiK]

There will always be hardware churn, but I do agree that Google needs to remain conscientious of how many OS permutations are out in the wild. More versions equals more work for developers at the end of the day, and I see that as an impediment to maintaining the momentum needed to become the number-one mobile platform in the long-run. End-users shouldn't have to worry about being abandoned when their carrier decides it's no longer profitable to update that particular model phone; although one could argue that's what we have the ROM scene for. The G1 has managed to live on quite well in this regard.

The writer has raised some valid concerns, but he's perceiving the glass to be more empty than it actually is.

[Martin030908]

Good point about the G1. That device is still around and kicking thanks to ROMs.

[Mojo]

From my understanding Google has made 2.1 readily available for manufactures to use.... it is the company's that are making the hardware that are making the OS fragmented.

[jkwakopo]

There will always be hardware churn, but I do agree that Google needs to remain conscientious of how many OS permutations are out in the wild. More versions equals more work for developers at the end of the day, and I see that as an impediment to maintaining the momentum needed to become the number-one mobile platform in the long-run. End-users shouldn't have to worry about being abandoned when their carrier decides it's no longer profitable to update that particular model phone; although one could argue that's what we have the ROM scene for. The G1 has managed to live on quite well in this regard.

The writer has raised some valid concerns, but he's perceiving the glass to be more empty than it actually is.

I know Google is selling their android phones about 60,000 a day which is amazing... I'm just worried about fragmentation within our os... Growing too fast isn't also so good, as proven by those IMF days by countries like Korea and Brazil ( i know you shouldn't compare big corp to countries but this could happen to Google!!) Also when MS is making a splash with their new OS, I think Google needs to do something about this fragmentation bs before this goes to wrong direction.

[EvilWays]

i have an iphone fanboy friend who sees this as a problem, personally, i dont. I still have a computer at home running xp, i ignored vista, and have another running windows 7, i see this as the same situation. theres no way to have 1 os on all phones without becoming apple or even worse, palm. palm os and iphone os work great on every phone they were released on because the os manufacturer worked very closely with and/or even controlled production of hardware, so if we want veriety in hardware, there will ineveitably be veriety in firmware.

[radsaq]

There's a number of factually wrong things that the writer says that rather undermine the point of the article.

[cabotcat]

It really makes no difference to me. I like my Moto Droid. Its capabilities are probably greater than I will ever be able to utilize. While software updates are nice, lack of is not a deal breaker for me. My main desktop computer is an old Apple purchased in 2000 with an upgraded processor and an antiquated OS. My laptop is a dual boot setup primarily running Ubuntu and rarely running XP.

I love the latest and greatest as much as anyone. However I see electronics as tools to accomplish a task. My 1963 Fisher 500B tube receiver sounds better than most electronics manufactured in the last 30 years.