[android-discuss] Non-Market Devices Increasing

[Doug Gordon]

Anyone having a lot of support requests from users trying to install their apps on "non-Market" devices, especially book readers and tablets? It seems like I get one of these almost every day lately, usually asking about some device that I've never heard of and have to Google in order to find out what it is. A lot of these devices are running highly customized versions of Android and just flat out will not work with many normal apps, but try telling that to a customer. For example, I downloaded the SDK and emulator for the Barnes & Noble "Nook" just to play around with. It looks like a lot of the bookreaders, in order to protect copyrights and all that, implement higher levels of security and my app was not able to create the directory on the SD card that it requires, so no-go. Just today I got a message from someone trying to install on a "Pocketbook IQ 701" (another reader, running "Android 2.0") and it was giving her a message "Unable to parse package" when trying to install. Not much I can do about that, but I doubt the app would run even if it installed. Anyway, the fact of the matter is that Android is not really a single operating system and it would be impossible to write an app that would anticipate all the ways that a vendor might enhance (or cripple) a particular implementation. But customers can't understand why, if it says "Android", why an app called "X for Android" won't run on their device. -- Doug Gordon GHCS Software http://www.ghcssoftware.com g...@ghcssoftware.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to android-discuss@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-discuss+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.