On Jan 18, 12:45 pm, Dianne Hackborn <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 11:58 AM, JP <[email protected]> wrote: > > >http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/04/backward-compatibility... > > This means having to cut off users on older Android releases, no? > > Um. No? The entire article is about how to use newer APIs while remaining > compatible with older platforms. Am I missing something? > > > Kevin illustrates the problem nicely. > > What is that exactly? I see him talking about incompatible manufacturer > customizations and how fixing those are the responsibility of the > manufacturer (true), about newer platform versions being compatible with > older ones and maintaining support for older ones not being a big deal, and > concern about minSdkVersion not filtering app from older platforms which > should definitely not be true. >
Perhaps I misread Kevin. Let me paddle back up a few posts. As apps and the underlying platform evolve, third party devs can end up painted in the corner, leaving only bad choices. Mostly it ends up locking users on Android 1.x out of new features, possibly leaving them completely behind, if these new features require changes that a dev is not able/willing to carry through back to 1.x. If carriers/manufacturers OTOH stepped up to maintain Android and pull their customers up through different versions, we would indeed be able to keep most every user on board. I feel we need this focus over a reasonable time span, at least for the duration of the contract period (two years typically). Here we are and some customers feel like they've been obsoleted six months into a two year contract... And that just one of these nagging issues that just don't get tackled. Of course one couldn't point at a single reason why things seem kindof gloomy, because it's a death-by-a-thousand cuts situation. The N1 release... Going by the complaints, effective support seems unavailable, especially with the problem the device has. Or pulling the Market out of the hat - with its wide range of long standing issues. The upgrade last year was a step in the right direction, but so much more remains to be done. The list goes on and on and it just seems Google has no traction to get stuff done, for reasons unknown and/or unpublished.
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