Owen,
Here's my $2 worth on this subject...
Technologists have known how to solve and re-solve the fragmentation
problem for users for centuries. Essentially, the same solution has been
reinvented under different monikers and different vocabularies since, at
least in the western world, the ancient Greeks - who had to invent
"standardized interfaces" for the broad adoption of musical instrument
design. During the industrial revolution, the discipline and trade of
engineering had to be invented to solve the same kinds of problems anew.
After all, engines of any kind had to be commonly understood by the
masses in order to gain broad usage and adoption. The same kind of thing
recurred with the invention of the electrical grid and the creation of
mass markets for electrical appliances that use it. And, NIST (nee, NBS)
was established about that time to help things along.
In our time, one of the more recent and successful technologies to
answer this call to combat fragmentation was in the software
engineering, and went under the general heading of "object oriented
technology". You know the names of some of its enabling mechanisms:
"separation of concerns", "encapsulation", "interfaces" and "polymorphism".
But there are other interests at work than those of end users. Vendors
want to divide and conquer. Programmers (er, web developers) want to
invent novelty for its own sake and to have it dominate existing
technologies.
My point is...I don't believe we have to treat the fragmentation of the
Android market as some kind of inevitability that is out of our hands.
Fragmentation has always been a wasteful propensity in technology. But
the solution has been known since ancient times. If we aren't solving
it, then probably we either have vested interests in not solving it
(like some vendors), or we don't remember our history (like some
programmers).
Cheers, Grant
On 8/24/14, 11:43 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
My current ancient ios iphone 4s is finally on its last legs. So I'm
looking to decide between the new iPhone 6 reportedly available next
month the various android devices. My ecology is basically google, so
android would be preferred from that standpoint.
So, this popped up in a newsletter:
http://opensignal.com/reports/2014/android-fragmentation/
Now fragmentation is not a bad thing, just difficult for folks to
manage, especially developers. But what is interesting is just how
rich the android ecology is, but also how diverse.
And yes, the article is careful to point out samsung dominance and
consider some of its specific fragmentation issues/advantages.
It's a well considered, non fanboi article, useful for folks deciding
between various devices and form factors.
I did ask an android friend at Friam how he deletes apps on his phone.
He couldn't delete the ones we tried, basically samsung built-in
annoyances. Anyone know how?
-- Owen
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