This question came to mind as I read a November 16, 2009 article on Wired.com titled, “Android’s Rapid Growth Has Some Developers Worried.” Seemingly the darling of developers as much as the iPhone is to marketers, Android’s attractive openness may cause more problems for developers than it solves. For marketers the situation will undoubtedly cause some hesitation as they look to Android as a platform for apps otherwise intended for, or in addition to, the iPhone.
Statements like these will make it hard for developers and their salespeople to claim an Android app offers access to the rapidly growing base of Android device users:
“A slew of problems have made managing Android apps a ‘nightmare,’ they (developers) say, including three versions of the OS (Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0), custom firmware on many phones, and hardware differences between different models.”
“For users, it means apps in the store could be buggy, might not work well depending on their handsets, and could deliver a frustrating experience. Unaware of the increasing back-end complexity, they would then be more likely to leave bad reviews for those apps.”
“Instead of working on updates to our apps, we find we are trying to make each app work for multiple versions of the OS and different hardware capabilities.”
“You may build an app that works perfectly with all three firmwares, but then when you run it on carriers’ ROMs it completely blows up.”
The article draws a connection with the introduction of Java and its promise of “write once, run anywhere,” and how that didn’t really work in practice. Google apparently offers emulators to test applications on different devices yet according to one developer these don’t work consistently, making it hard to confidently create a multi-device compatible application.
If the same holds true with Android, you will soon see charts of device market share split across different Android-based devices as opposed to one monolithic category – especially when talking about the market for mobile applications.
Apple must see these as good signs and validation of their tightly controlled model. The mobile web is another story, and it looks as if Android is a great platform for developing a rich, user friendly web experience. Emerging statistics like these November 17, 2009 ones on eMarketer.com bear that out.
