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.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Android does not appear to be marketed to consumers much
Google nor the OHA seem to be marketing the Android brand directly to the consumer. The only channel for that I see is that user's that own Android handsets see Android branding in various place and they see variations on the name in application names.
There are lots of ways that Google can accelerate the adoption of Android, but they don't seem interested in more growth then they can handle.
I'm still curious what the OHA actually is. Do they hold conference calls? Do they have email distribution groups and discussions?
Is it still basicaly directed by Google employees?
Does the OHA have a budget, if so who contributes?
I'd like to see the OHA be a bit more open in it's governance. I don't overly mind it not being so though. I'm amazed at how much it has improved the mobile ecosystem already, and am willing to give the OHA a fair amount of slack given what it has accomplished.
"I'm still curious what the
"I'm still curious what the OHA actually is. Do they hold conference calls? Do they have email distribution groups and discussions?"
I was thinking perhaps they had potluck dinners. If they ever invite me, I'll offer to bring a pie.
(Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...pie!)
More seriously, many of these industry alliances are little more than a domain name. There may be more to OHA than that -- it's hard to tell, per your wanting OHA to "be a bit more open in it's governance". But I would not be shocked if the OHA is more of a name and less of an actual authoritative entity.
I like the way Canonical
I like the way Canonical does releases. A 6-month time table seems like it would be good for Android. Often but not 6-times-a-year often.
version madness
So does it make it like impossibly hard to keep your books up to date? 2-3 months seems like it would be tuff to churn out one update let alone 2
Keep On Keepin' On
I just keep writing. SDK updates means a round of extra work (e.g., making sure all examples still build and run), but otherwise it's just a continuous process, expanding and improving the books.
Motorola Cliq
The Cliq actually comes with Android 1.5 and the blur services. They have not announced any upgrades to 1.6 or 2.0..yet.
not a fan
I'm not a fan of such rapid rollouts of new versions. Keeping a schedule of 2-3 major updates a year will just kill the platform, preventing consistency across apps and networks. Especially since it appears that HTC and other providers are doing some behind the scenes modifications to the code base anyway.
I have 7 apps in the marketplace and recently rolled a new one out as a 1.6 version. So of course the sprint decision not to do over the air updates is pretty annoying since none of their users will be able to see my application. So lesson learned, just go with 1.5.
They need to sync up the releases with the phone manufacturers so that new phones come out with the latest version of the code. Since life cycles are a year plus for the handset manufacturers, one major release per year is fine, especially since it seems that most of the new stuff is more cosmetic and not game changing anyway. Maybe a better strategy would be to focus on graphic capabilities than gps stuff.
OHA and Domination of Handset World (my words)
I started developing with Android because it showed such promise. Open source software that will beat Microsoft's monopoly. It isn't going that way.
My assumption was that OHA was more than just mobile phones.
But, if I can't choose which version of Andoid I am running, and I can't load it via Wifi, and I can't load apps via Wifi, Android is never going to be anything other than for mobile phones under the tight control of mobile phone air time providers.
Google needs to break this control, and quick!
Android 1.6 should have come
Android 1.6 should have come out over the summer, no question. I agree with this post, it echoes my recent thoughts. However, as you said, it won't be a problem in six months. All Android devices just need to get 1.6 so developers can target that as the baseline for multiple screen sizes and the new Market. Then it will be a lot easier to choose between 1.6 and other versions (if those versions have features you want to use.) The 1.5/1.6 split is going to be rocky for now, no doubt.
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