But no matter what Tweetdeck developers say, the fragmentation of the OS is still worrying. True, these charts show the wealth of custom software and mods developed by users—it’s amazing there are so many—so they’re not totally 1:1 depicting Android’s fragmentation. The problems are there though. New phones are still going out the door with old, outdated software. Carriers and other companies are developing alternative Android app stores. Carriers are ruining phones with bloatware and bad software. It’s actually hard to get a phone running a clean version of Android the way Google intended it.
As a user, I prefer to sacrifice the superficial and truly horrible customisation that all these phones offer – or rather, inflict on the user – in favour of a single approach, like Apple or Microsoft’s.
harvz
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 8:06 AMyou also forgot the tweet that said they only have 2 devs working on the app 4 android
Matt
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 8:27 AMYou’re missing the point – the number of ROMS doesnt matter, so long as it meets Android framework requirements.
As for devices, so long as they meet requirements set out by the open handset alliance, the app should work.
That said its up to the developer to make sure that their app displays correctly on different sized screens. But I believe that is also a requirement of iOS given the resolution differences between ipods, iphones and ipads.
cheers
samt114
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 8:56 AMI must be a little behind in regards to Android handsets these days, I didn’t realise there was a difference between a ‘Droid’ and a ‘droid’?
glennc
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 9:10 AMadmit it diaz, you are in love with jobs
olearymo
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 9:39 AMwhoa, whoa, whoa.
First diagram – what the hell does it matter the phone brands? ‘fragmentation’ applies to ROMS.
Second diagram – you’ve included UNOFFICIAL ROMs?! Good god man, what’s your problem? You’ve included HOMEBREW in an argument about fragmentation?
How can you possibly be expected to be taken seriously as a journalist or even blogger, when you pull this kind of shit?
Wake up, do some research, and do. Your. Job.
olearymo
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 9:41 AMI’m sorry, Jesus, I usually love your stuff. But this ridiculous pie chart takes the cake, so to speak.
matt
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:10 AMyeah! you can’t even tell WHICH OS corresponds to which colour on the pie chart!
anyone care to take a stab at what each one is??
Greg
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:02 AMBecause EVERY Apple device magically runs the latest and greatest OS as soon as it comes out. No fragmentation there, every device has exactly the same hardware and capabilities, too! Idiot.
This is the most pointless article I’ve read on gizmodo in ages.
matt
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:07 AMheh, oh yes, lets just quietly skip over the fact that steve jobs blatantly LIED about what a company said.
anyway… if you have a GOOD os, it doesn’t matter how many different types of phones there are!!
I’m actually pleasantly surprised to see that over half of all android users are running the same OS!
I can damn well near guarantee that isn’t the case with ios!
and I really can’t stress this enough: ios has EXACTLY the same problems when developing for it. it doesn’t matter that all the hardware is made by the same company: the difference between the iphone 3G and the 3GS is greater than the differences between the VAST majority of android phones.
just because they all look the same… they have the EXACT same problem.
having said that, Upgradabillity of android devices is still THE BIGGEST problem. FIX IT!
Des
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:16 AMGizmodo dissing Android? It’d never happen!
You obviously don’t know how development actually happens. You’re not developing your app for multiple ROMs, you develop for a framework which is as easy as developing for iOS or WinPhone7.
Seriously, if this is the future of journalism we’re in for a world of mindless zombies (although I guess some would argue we’re there already). Whatever happened to factual reporting? What happened to impartiality? Do you not even try anymore?
eK
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:33 AMDont be too harsh on the poor journalist, this website has gone pro Iphone and Pro Apple for weeks maybe months now… nothing surprising here anymore…
But it s a shame that some people still think diversity is a bad think… this kind of thinking reminds me of North Korea where even the haircut is not something you can choose for yourself.
But to believe that journalist would be the advocate of this type of thinking… Man, this website went really low
olearymo
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 12:21 PMJournalist? Where?
Confused
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:38 AMCall me crazy but what is the difference between android 2.2, froyo or 2.2?
i think this article seems a “tad” bias..
Trent
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 11:38 AMTotally agree with this article, and was discussing this exact issue at a winpho7 preview a few days ago.
This is exactly why micrsoft have dictated hardware requirements for winpho, right down to resolution.
klaw
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 12:00 PMWow, this is the sort of article that makes me want to stop reading Gizmodo. An interesting pair of graphs, to be sure…..but the accompanying text fails to have any relevance to the data, let alone lead to a sensible conclusion.
Congratulations Diaz – you’ve plumbed new depths.
olearymo
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 12:23 PMpay attention, Giz. This article is the bomb of the week, if not the month. The readers’ comments reflect that this is one of the most misleading and pointless articles in recent times.
We all KNOW Diaz can do better. That’s what makes it so disappointing.
Diaz – explain the graphs better, and apologise for the misleading information. It’s exactly what Giz would tell another company to do.
We’re waiting.
Steve
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 12:45 PMAlso waiting.
Clean this mess up Gizmodo – too many slip ups will lost you both respect AND readers.
eK
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 1:57 PMMaybe Gizmodo has secretly been baught by Apple and they re going to rename the website iGiz… Who knows
Brock Taffe
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 2:09 PMIt’s just his opinion? and he’s just justifying the big Steve. You guys sound pretty stupid fighting about this.
Both platforms have the same problem but it’s more intense with the Android platform because of the massive range.
Also I wish manufactures would stop putting bloatware on phones & computers as well. It makes them look cheap.
olearymo
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 2:40 PMOh!! I’m sorry, here I thought this was ‘Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide’. Turns out, it’s ‘Opinion Corner’.
Yeah, let’s not worry about news or anything, let’s just go with our personal opinions. I mean, it’s not like the writers are being paid, and have a JOB to do!
I’m glad we’re all entertaining for you, Brock. And thanks for your total non-sequitir at the end about crapware. How relevant!!
boc
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 1:11 AMMore than 2/3 of Android devices (Google’s numbers not TweetDeck’s) are either 2.1 or 2.2. Yes that is a massive range indeed.
Where’s the fragmentation issue people seem to be so up in arms about?
What about the other 1/3 of devices? So what, I bet all those devices are still perfectly functional for what they were intended for.
Not every device in the world has to be upgradable to the latest and greatest software – forever.
@Diaz If you want the monolithic approach like Apple then you could always install stock Android or get a Nexus One (secondhand). Android goes both ways – it doesn’t “inflict on the user” one way or the other. Also, lighten up on the Android hate.
klaw
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 2:47 PMOk Giz, here’s how it’s done. It’s called journalism.
From the first chart, we can deduce the following facts:
a)There are a lot of different devices running Android and using TweetDeck.
b)The most common devices running Android and TweetDeck is the HTC Desire. Other prevalent devices include the Nexus One, the Droid and Droid X and a couple Samsung devices.
c)Some of TweetDeck’s users are running a variety of unofficial ROMs which don’t properly report the name of the device. As a percentage of total users, these are relatively small.
The second chart shows us that:
a) At least 55% of Android devices using TweetDeck are running Android 2.2;
b) A further ~30% of Android devices using TweetDeck are running Android 2.1;
c)A further ~10% of Android devices using TweetDeck are running Android 1.6;
d)The remaining ~5% of Android devices using TweetDeck are running a variety of unofficial ROMs which don’t properly report the OS version. As a percentage of total users, these are relatively small.
That’s it – that’s all the charts tell us. They don’t prove that developing for Android is messy and difficult.
The fact that such a wide variety of devices with different specifications are using the TweetDeck software suggests that either TweetDeck put a massive amount of resources into developing their product (which they have clearly said they didn’t) or that it’s not hard to run TweetDeck on lots of devices with a variety of ROMs.
Now have another go at the article, using the above facts to come up with a conclusion.
Brenton
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:56 PMI must be reading this upside down… So the Dev is saying that it wasn’t a nightmare to develop the app, and the app runs on what seems to be 100 different hardware models running 100 different OS versions including hacked ROM’s. Doesn’t this show the strength of the Android framework?
olearymo
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:45 AMI stand corrected, Mr. Diaz has in fact added some extra text pointing out the custom homebrew ROMs.
Thankyou. That actually is a little more class, and it’s appreciated.
Bilgin Ozkan
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 2:00 PMSo how do I go about getting the My Phone Bitch phone (5th last(?) on the first chart).
mimo
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 11:29 PMSorry, that i can not agree with Steve Jobs and You.
Android is linux based slim almost full os and not only just a simple singlefunctional os for one still the same hw as apple have.
It is realy easy to build system on device you made, but try that for other devices.
Even buggtracking must be payn.
If You will have such as success as Google with Android, then i can understand what you mean, but at this point, i think that you dont have even knowledge to understand what android is and what will be in future.
I agree only with fragmentation, but thats not problem of android, thats problem about people who use him. Especialy, manufacturers which made extensions.
I am slovakian, and I cant say that my android phone is not working, or not talking to me, cause it is not in slovakian language. Most of people does not understand czech in slovakia in future can be problem when people means that we are still czechoslovakia as we are not something arround 16 years.
Well even if my phone does not speak to me in my language, i never have seen better os for my phone which i wana travel with, browse internet, chat, text, or call from.