- Posts tagged fragmentation
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Asymco on how Google’s lack of Android control affects their value chain
Google today is faced with the prospect that not only the devices (which sit on its OS) but also services and apps on top would choose to remain on old versions of Android. There is nothing to stop them from doing just that. Unlike Microsoft, Google does not enforce licensing terms for Android. It is at the mercy of the value chain.
The article also points out that even if Google wanted to stop the above scenario, they do not have the license terms to permit it.
The iPad vs. Android's fragmentation
That 20,000 sales figure is decent on its own, but it becomes much more impressive when putting it in context. Rohit tells us he's had sales of about $100,000 from iPhone apps so far this year, and just $5,000 from Android apps…
When we were talking with Rohit, we asked about the relatively weak Android sales. Rohit blames it on Google's lame Android Market, "Google does not provide web links that we can link to app -- they have no store. Google being a web company, this is unacceptable."
Rohit also says fragmentation is a problem on Android, saying "It's really absurd, we have to buy all latest Android phones, test on all of them, each phone manufacturer makes some customizations as well." But a new SDK is coming that should help with that.
The article is about the success of the developer with an iPad app, which is nice.
More interesting, however, is the state of Android app sales and the Market Place. It's a real issue, but one Google has little real incentive to spend time and resources to address. Indeed, since it's tied so closely to various carriers' and hardware manufacturers' business decisions regarding custom software, and differing update policies, it's not even exclusively Google's issue to address.
Why Is My Android Phone So Much Different Than Yours?
“I didn’t know that I had an older operating system until I compared it with my friends,” Roark says. “They said my Android Market looks very different from theirs.”…
Like Roark, many Android customers are discovering that their new smartphones do not have the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. Despite state-of-the art hardware and design, many new Android phones are shipped with older versions of the firmware, cutting off consumers’ access to newer features and apps that require the most recent versions.
Ah, the perils of fragmentation. This is a problem that's only going to get worse and, despite the dreams of some pundits, there's very little Google can do about it. This is what so-called "open" begets.
In this case, why would Verizon dole out an upgrade that provides free GPS navigation when they can sell it to him for $10 a month? And that's even assuming the guy's phone can run the latest Android. It's a mess, and getting messier.
I wonder what Google's new mouthpiece Tim Bray thinks of this? I'm sure he'll have a good little corporate response after he figures out the difference between the mobile internet and an app store.
