Version, Out of Control?

The Impact of Rapid Android Releases

In late April 2009, Google released Android 1.5.

In mid-September 2009, Google released Android 1.6.

In late October 2009, Google released Android 2.0.

That is three version releases in a span of six months. Progress is great. Progress is necessary. But there is going to be some fallout for this flood of Android versions, both with consumers and developers.

On the consumer side, from what I can see, there is little effort to truly differentiate these Android versions. Yet, we have brand-new devices on the market, released within a few weeks of each other, that ship with Android 1.5 (HTC Hero), Android 1.6 (Motorola CLIQ), and Android 2.0 (Motorola DROID). Combine the Android releases with the variations in user interfaces (HTC Sense, Motorola BLUR), and consumers may well not even fully comprehend that these phones all are running Android. Rather, they may think of them mostly as a bucket of features that happen to come with their handset. Some people worry that User A will get annoyed if they cannot run User B's favorite app because of Android version differences — I worry that User A won't realize that running User B's favorite app is even possible.

Those that do understand that it is all Android under the hood may still get baffled by differences that, in reality, are differences in versions...but version differences are not exactly front-and-center. Just because XP-, Vista-, and Windows 7-powered PCs might all be on the market at one time does not mean this is a good idea.

At the same time, developers are being hit with different screen sizes (QVGA and multiple flavors of WVGA to go with the original HVGA) and three total Android versions. These overlap — the extra support in Android to handle the different screen sizes showed up in Android 1.6, meaning creating apps that support multiple screen sizes and support Android 1.5 devices can be tricky. Moreover, many Android devices may be on 1.5 for a while, such as the Hero, so this problem is unlikely to go away quickly. Combine that with the Android 2.0 overhaul of the contacts APIs and a smattering of hardware-specific quirks, and developers burn a lot of time just trying to keep pace, let alone actually advance their apps.

Now, don't get me wrong. These new Android versions are very useful to developers, adding things such as the improved Android Market. In six months, much of the pain being experienced now will be behind us. And the recently-announced Android Developer Lab events will certainly help those who can get to one of those major metropolitan areas.

But if Android is going to go through this much feature churn in this short of a period of time, more needs to be done to educate both consumers and developers. This does not necessarily need to take up tons of Google staff time — find ways to educate those who in turn will educate the consumers and developers, and let the ecosystem serve as the “force multiplier”. Right now, there is much too much “super-double-secret” around Android, even on stuff as mundane as schedules, that makes it difficult for the ecosystem to help Google help itself.

In the meantime, we'll all just have to muddle through.

• Google
• Wireless / Mobile
• Android
• Android 1.5
• Android 1.6
• android 2.0
• htc hero
• motorola cliq
• motorola droid