Android App Store fragmentation

Everyone knows that Android has been heading down the dark path of fragmentation with every handset maker wanting to put their own spin on Android. HTC started this trend with their Sense UI on the HTC Hero and has been applying their UI to every Android device they have manufactured since. Motorola followed suit with Blur, the multi-hyper-connected UI for Android, making it easy for all your messages and social networks to be aggregated in to one list. And others are starting to do the same to try and distinguish their devices as being a better Android experience.

This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if all this extra stuff didn’t slow down the progress of Android. Companies have to put in a lot of time and money to produce their own version of Android, so when Google releases a new branch of code for the OS the handset manufacturers need to start from the ground up again and recreate their UI for that specific version of Android. This is why we don’t see 1.6 or 2.0 on the Cliq or any of HTC’s Android Devices. What kind of implications this will have towards Android is yet to be seen.

Now it seems that fragmentation is not only limited to the Android OS itself, but also in the distribution of Android Applications. Device manufacturers are planning on including their own portals for selling applications.


0621_veins2

Companies like Motorola have announced plans to create their own “Android Market” for their devices. Motorola calls their portal SHOP4APPS and it is a Web based app store where you can browse its content much like any other with Free and Paid categories with many sub-categories. They will also be offering this in the form of an application which you can download from the site when it is up and running. And we have already seen a few other app stores out there like Archos’ Appslib and the newly created Storeoid from General Mobile. Archos says that they could not include Google’s Application Market because they had altered the software to support High-Def content and the applications wouldn’t play nice with their device.

All these new app stores aren’t necessarily a bad thing for consumers. It gives you more choices from where you would like to get your content, which could also spur more competition and may possibly drive the cost of these cheap products even lower. But what does it mean for the developer? Developers want their applications to be available for all to purchase. Yet they may not want to commit their resources to all the different app stores. I may be incorrect but if these new application stores are like Google’s or Apple’s then the developer will most likely need to pay a registration fee and quite possibly a yearly fee to have their applications hosted in these app stores.

The massive fragmentation of Android Application distribution may or may not help Android in the end. We shall see in time what its effects will have mainly on the developing community of Android. In the end, trying to find the right Android Application could end up being just as hard as trying find the right Blackberry application.

Tags:

Post comment as
twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest

Maybe you're right looking at it from an average consumer pov, because they really wouldn't know anything about firmwares and such. As a techy though, I think most of us would prefer the updated firmware as opposed to the fancy UI...But I definitely undertand your point because when it comes down to it, it's all about money in the long run.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

Maybe you're right looking at it from an average consumer pov, because they really wouldn't know anything about firmwares and such. As a techy though, I think most of us would prefer the updated firmware as opposed to the fancy UI...But I definitely undertand your point because when it comes down to it, it's all about money in the long run.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

Maybe you're right looking at it from an average consumer pov, because they really wouldn't know anything about firmwares and such. As a techy though, I think most of us would prefer the updated firmware as opposed to the fancy UI...But I definitely undertand your point because when it comes down to it, it's all about money in the long run.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

You keep forgetting one thing, that is product life cycle. If every company is forced to have all their products updated to the last release softwarewise, "no one" would buy the most recent ones, or the price premium for these devices would have to go down... and they are here to make money.Ths solution would be simple. Google should inforce in android's licensing scheme the obligation for at least one major release upgrade on plain vanila Android OS. That way, the company wouldn't have to develop for the old models, just assure the Driver components were up to date... and this would also maintain the diferentiation between older and newer models, and would not lock down the savy users of updated versions.The fragmentation of the market... it's a non issue. Choice is good, and as Archos example said... power to the people to get every alternative available. In my case in Portugal (where google doesn't yet have a merchants account- so no payed apps) I can only wellcome the alternatives, as a user and a wanabe developer.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

Regarding fragmentation of the Android OS, I think that companies should do one of two things: (1)Either relax on heavily customizing the UI and launch handsets with vanilla or if they want to go the route of UI customization then they need to (2)work like dogs when Google drops a new version. Granted the average consumer has no idea what 1.5, 1.6 or 2.0 is, given time when Android catches on and you have even more people walking around with Android devices like you do iPhone handsets, they will start to notice the inferiority their Hero/Eris has compared to a G1 or MT3G or even a Droid.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

Interesting article.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

I agree with your comments about devices without the official Market. I think the Archos5 suffered a bit because of the lack of the Market. Since then the Market has been made available to Archos5 users. I would have to be hard pressed to buy a device that doesn't have the Market. I think in the MINIMUM the Market should be on every device.However, I disagree with your statement that it should be like the iPhone. Imagine if real life was like that. What if Ford said that you could ONLY get your car serviced at a certified Ford dealership? Everything from oil changes, tires, body repair, or something more severe like swapping an engine. There are plenty of qualified (and probably cheaper) mechanics in the world, but you can't use them. They have signed an agreement with Ford saying that they won't work on Ford vehicles. So now you have to drive half way across town and pay whatever they want to charge to get a simple oil change. You have no choice.Android is about choice. A developer can choose how they would like to distribute their application. They can choose to use the Market (and they should). They can sell their apps on their own website. Or they can strike a deal with other 'stores' to sell their wares. If Sprint approched me and offered me $10,000 to develop an app that was going to be exclusively sold through Powerdeck, I probably wouldn't turn them away (depending on what the contract looked like :)

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

I strongly disagree with "App Store fragmentation" I think they should keep it all in one place, think this might destroy android for me..... also its going to be that some devices on one carrier's app store will have better apps so only that android device might sell and not give others a chance.I would agree if the carriers had there own channel via the "Android Market" as then we would still be able to access the "Android Market" as it is. But if the carriers where to remove the "Android Market" then this is a bad move as I see android being just a mess. Got to keep things simple like apple. The iPhone does so well because its so simple. Think how annoying its going to be if different android devices have different stores!! Its just the carries trying to make more money for them self's.If this goes ahead then I wont be buying any android device's that dose not include the "Android Market"I strongly disagree with fragmentation of the "Android Market". I hope this doesn't happen!!

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

Sprint did this when they released the Hero. They partnered with Handmark to sell Android apps through their Sprint Powerdeck mobile site. There are a few free apps, but the paid ones start at $2 and go up to $60. There are 130 total (127 available for the Hero).There is some magic way for carriers to set up a channel in the Android Market. When I had a review Droid, there were three channels in the Market: Apps, Games, Verizon. The only thing in "Verizon" was Visual Voicemail, but there's no reason they couldn't publish their V-Cast apps there.HTC has recently published a set of widgets that ONLY work on Sense phones. They don't show up in the Android Widgets section.I can see a device having several app distribution channels installed, from the manufacturer, carrier, Android Market, and other third party stores. I don't see this as a problem, but more of an advantage over some OTHER mobile platforms.Cheers,Breon

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

RSS PhoneDog

RSS TmoNews

RSS TodaysiPhone