The Android platform has been growing at an virtually dizzying pace lately. The variety of new releases in a short time period has lead many to warn that fragmentation has change into a critical hazard to Android. Google’s Android staff has responded saying that the Android fragmentation is a myth. Is fragmentation of Android a fable or is it something that ought to concern Android builders?
Fragmentation has affected Linux and different open source systems in the past. It happens when a system has multiple versions with very totally different components. For instance, Linux distributions have their very own file system preparations, totally different window managers and totally different packaging systems. This makes it troublesome for utility builders to create applications for Linux on the expectation that sure parts will exist or be in the same location.
Causes of Fragmentation
Android has suffered from among the basic causes of fragmentation. First, there are extensive variations in the capabilities of the hardware devices on which Android runs. While in many programs, this might simply result in extreme fragmentation, Android has not been as affected by this. Android is, however, being very rapidly developed. Each new version of Android has added capabilities. Handsets available on the market are working as many as 5 totally different versions of the Android operating system. This is the place the greatest danger of fragmentation lies. Lastly, completely different manufacturers have been dressing up Android with varied add-ons and customized user interfaces. These variations in how Android seems to be and feels may also lead to fragmentation.
Google has responded to the numerous reports of Android fragmentation by calling it a “delusion”. They’ve put in place some methods and a plan that ought to help address the difficulty of fragmentation. Google is so positive of those plans that they believe fragmentation doesn’t exist.
Fragmentation Prevention
One strategy that Google is taking to stop fragmentation is slowing down the event of Android. The rapid development allowed Google so as to add new functionality to Android and attain a level of maturity that makes Android competitive with different smartphone platforms. Now that Android is absolutely featured, the development can sluggish again down.
Together with slowing down the event of Android, Google has developed a plan to make Android more modular. This can permit users of Android based mostly programs to update individual parts of the Android system even if their carrier has not moved to a more moderen model of Android. For example, if a model new version of Gmail is launched, customers can decide to upgrade Gmail on their phones. This modularity is being utilized to various methods together with gadgets like the keyboard.
One other approach that Google has taken to try and forestall fragmentation of Android is to undertake a sequence of standards that should be followed to achieve access to the Android market. These requirements define minimal functionality that a handset must have in order for the service to ship the Android market with the phone. By controlling the market, Google has ensured that these standards might be adhered to. These standards usually take care of hardware and include things like each Android handset must have a camera. By utilizing these standards, Google can assure developers that certain performance will at all times be obtainable on an Android phone.
Intents are another type of standard that Google uses to avoid functionality. An intent is a sort of interface that Android uses. For instance, an application that sends e-mail will use an intent to launch an an electronic mail composition window. By utilizing intents, it is possible to replace the default electronic mail shopper with one other software and nonetheless have the expected habits from other applications that write email.
Customized User Interfaces
While these systems certainly appear to assist scale back the danger of fragmentation, calling it a delusion seems to be a bit daring on Google’s part. The biggest supply of potential fragmentation seems to be custom user interfaces being applied to Android by varied phone makers. It is not unusual to see updates to purposes within the Android market geared in the path of fixing a bug with a producer’s custom UI. Of course, utilizing anecdotal proof from the Android market to determine if custom person interfaces are fragmenting Android just isn’t a really strong approach. It appears cheap, however, that heavy customization of how Android appears to be like and feels will fragment the platform.
This menace goes beyond just creating problems for developers. End users will not be able to pick up any Android handset and count on it to work in the same way. Varied custom Androids start to present a learning curve for the tip users which can scale back the uptake of Android.
Google says that fragmentation of Android is a fantasy based on the techniques that they have in place to combat fragmentation. Nevertheless, it does seem from shopping the market that developers are struggling somewhat with supporting the assorted versions of Android, the completely different handsets and especially the various custom consumer interfaces. Is fragmentation really a myth? Publish a comment together with your thoughts, particularly in case you are developing for Android and have encountered compatibility issues with a customized user interface.
Smartphones primarily based on Android have quickly outsold their rivals. Every supplier appears to be including a phone based mostly upon Android to their device line up. The number of applications out there for Android has exploded and fed the recognition of the platform. What does the method forward for Android maintain? Is the future of Android cloudy?
For essentially the most half, Android’s future prospects are fairly bright. Android has outsold the iPhone. The number of out there purposes for Android keep growing. Android can be moving into different arenas in addition to smartphones. Samsung recently revealed an Android based mostly tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad and plans are beneath method for Google TV, a set high field platform based mostly on Android.
Whereas adoption of Android is speedily choosing up, one cloud was not too lengthy ago solid upon Android’s future. Oracle, who acquired Sun Microsystems lately, has filed a patent lawsuit in opposition to Android. This lawsuit claims that Dalvik infringes on plenty of Java patents which Oracle acquired from Sun. This lawsuit has cast a cloud not only over the future of the Android platform however even the future of Java itself. It has additionally led to a selection of former Solar open supply tasks being forked because the open source community flees from Oracle.
When discussing whether Android’s future appears cloudy, we also wants to take into account another interpretation of “cloudy”. Android is unique among smartphone platforms. Its main rivals have been built largely as extensions of a desktop operating system. Home windows CE and Windows Mobile are designed to sync with a desktop PC so that files and electronic mail from a desktop system can be “mobile”. The iPhone relies on a MacOS and is largely a cellular extension of a Mac based mostly computer. Android, however, was designed from the beginning with the Web in mind. Consequently, Android depends closely on cloud computing to store its data. This creates a sort of ubiquitous knowledge storage that resides “within the clouds”. I can add a contact to my Android telephone and see it on my desktop Gmail. If I replace my cellphone, I enter my username and password and all my contacts and information are just there. It is because they exist within the cloud – not on my phone or desktop.