Recent Chart of Android Fragmentation

by Antonio Wells Apr 14, 2010 8:31 AM – 2 Comments

Android Fragmentation has been a frustrating problem for consumers, developers, resource websites (like us), carriers and handset manufacturers. However Google and partners are taking steps to close the fragmentation gaps, take a look at the two charts below of data collected by Google of OS versions among handsets in the market in December of 2009 and again recently in April 2010.

: Android Platform Versions December 2009

: Android Platform Versions April 2010

It shows the gaps closing however more than 60% of handsets are still below 2.0 which is the reason why some consumers cannot find some apps in the Android Market that they see in our Android app reviews as they may be targeted at higher OS versions.

[Thanks Nonie via Android Developers Blog and Android Platform Versions]

Tags: Android Fragmentation

Categorised in: News

2 Comments

By Matt J. on September 12, 2010 at 7:55 am:

The article does not live up to its title. There is a -lot- more to fragmentation than just ROM version. Fragmentation is also caused by differing implementation choices on different hardware platforms, too. An example is screen size/density — though if developers follow the rules, Google handles this pretty well.

An example of fragmentation due to hardware platform that is harder to handle is the SD card. One Samsung phone has TWO SD cards, which is a great idea — except that the Android API does not support it. The support is peculiar to Samsung so there you go: more fragmentation.

Reply
- By Jason Norment on September 12, 2010 at 8:46 am:
  
  @Matt J: I hope as we move on to 3.0 that fragmentation should begin to decrease for newer handsets. At least setting standards will still allow choice across manufacturers and carriers for different devices but at least give developers a better idea about who they are designing these apps for. Of course, that doesn’t fix the issue with any handset that does not meet the requirements for Gingerbread.
  
  I’m curious to see how Google handles this one.
  
  Reply