Today the sales training release for Motorola’s upcoming Droid 2 leaked, and with it came a very interesting marketing point: agents are to compare the Droid 2′s Android 2.2 OS with other phones which are still stuck on 2.1.
Complaints of fragmentation across versions of Android are nothing new. 2.2 is the newest version of the OS, and yet due development cycles, we’re still seeing 2.1 devices just coming to market (I’m looking at you, Samsung). The G1, which was only killed off a few days ago, never made it past version 1.6. One of my less knowledgeable friends recently made the mistake of buying a Motorola Backflip, and that thing still has 1.5.
The question is this: is Android fragmentation a problem? The short answer to that is yes. As with most things, the long answer is far more convoluted than that.
In the short term, Android is making a whole lot of people a whole lot of money. Take HTC, which in a short period of time has become a company we all know by name. This past quarter, their earnings were up by a jaw-dropping 58%. Motorola was on the brink of obsolescence until it teamed up with Google and Verizon to get the Droid to market, and suddenly it’s making bank again.
The real problem is that customers are not going to come back to Android if the handset makers use different versions of the OS as a marketing tool. Android 2.2 is rocking better Exchange support and portable hotspot capabilities. Both are big deals for perspective buyers, particularly the former as Exchange integration means business customers can use their handsets for work. But when handsets come to market running Android 2.3, you can bet the people stuck on 2.2 are going to feel shafted. When their contracts are up, a lot of those people are going to jump to the iPhone or something else where they always know that they’re going to at least be capable of running the latest software.
The handset makers could fix this problem. The solution is to hire more coders to get the software running. Instead you have companies like Samsung which are waiting until September to push 2.2 to their phones. Before you say that updating software that quickly isn’t possible, consider the Android ROM community. If you’re so inclined, you can root your phone and install the newest version of Android within a week or two of Google’s release.
The problem is that ROM tinkerers make up a small percentage of the market. By and large, people don’t want to think about what they can do to get their phones to run optimally. And the problem isn’t hardware – even the G1 was bumped up to Android 2.2 by ROM hackers. No one wants to see that their cool new gadget is suddenly unable to do all the things that the new stuff can do. So if Android handset makers don’t work as hard to update older handsets as they do to make new ones, they may not enjoy good sales for too much longer.
I don’t think using ROM developers as a proof of how quickly these things can be pushed out is fair. There’s a much higher expectation of stability from an official update than from a hacked ROM. ROMs’s users are also its testers, while an official update has to be tested and optimized before it gets to users.
Some people call it fragmentation, the market sees it as customer choice. The iPhone? being beholden to Steve Job’s locked-down, closed, controlling whims is no customer choice at all. The iPhone cannot access Flash content ubiquitous on the web because Jobs hate Flash, so no Flash content for his walled garden dwellers. Android is multiple phone forms, multiple carriers, multiple manufacturers, multiple OS flavors- Android is to mobile, as Windows is to desktop- market dominators.
Where I take issue with your argument is that if you buy a laptop running Windows 7 Home Edition from any vendor, it will be able to update to the latest build of Windows, where the latest build is defined as Windows 7 with all the most recent updates. Right now, that is not the case on Android. No customer is going to want to choose the older, less functional OS. And the problem is only exacerbated by the fact that marketing is now trying to push newer versions of Android as a selling point. In PC terms, this would be like if you bought a Vista laptop and a few months later Win7 came out. Only in this case, you wouldn’t get a free upgrade option.
Of course is it a bit annoying to wait for new features while android blog tell you every day how BEAUTIFUL und USEFUL the next version of Android is. But what are the alternatives? Apple: one OS upate per year. Still slower then Samsung.
So what if the Backflip comes with 1.5? You can upgrade it to 2.1 from Motorola’s site.
No fuss, unless you don’t know how to use a computer, Michael.
Well I don’t have a phone yet. But, it is an interesting issue for keeping up to date with new version of the Android os.
The average user won’t even notice the differences between Android 2.0,2.1 or 2.2. The same Apps run on it, and most users only know one thing: “it runs Android”.
I have rarely seen complaints about fragmentation from users, only websites that apparently are writing articles with the only reason of writing articles are mentioning things like this ;) Fragmentation is overhyped and not something that is really that big a problem for either end-user or developer.
I consider myself an average user along with most of my friends and family (all on android) I have been waiting since Feb. for the update from tmoile for my MT3G 3.5mm, still running and. 1.6. I know what I’m missing, and have had to seriously fight off the temptation to root my phone. t mobile can’t even give a straight answer as to when we can expect an update, just more speculation and rumors.
rofl those people can wait.
Isn’t android supposed to update itself to a new version transparently over-the-air?
Michael Klurfeld — good article and great points.
I have had this very same discussion on my podcast — Android’s fragmentation. I don’t think that it’s as terrible as you make it out to be. The average person does not even understand what Android is let alone what version they are running. Just because Motorola is making version diferences a selling point still does not mean much. I do agree that there needs to be standards and Google and/or the Open Handset Alliance should implement a standard or two.
Hotspots are cool but most MNO’s charge extra for that feature. Exchange support is solid but most IT shops don’t allow unapproved devices to attach to their network.
Additionally, the OEM skins the handset. The subscriber does not see the OS nor does he actually (directly) interact with it.
I think for now you’re right that consumers don’t know what Android is, but that’s clearly changing given that the sales pitched for Android phones is going to be what version of the OS is on the phone. Just as people are being told what their phone OS is and why it matters, they’re also being told that month-old products are suddenly obsolete. At the same time, everyone knows the iPhone is good for at least a year – that’s publically understood.
Sorry but look at iPhone and any other phones (like SonyEricsonns and Nokias) – there are no updates at all! IT-people are still nagging about versioning of Android but they don’t see that real people just don’t care about which version of Android do they have. I’ve had v1.5 and v2.1 and sorry but I don’t see any markable changes. Apps are working the same, calendar, calls, SMS – everything. And you are nagging with versioning. Unbelievable!
I understand the points you’ve made in your article, and I agree that Android OS fragmentation is a problem. I do feel however that is Motorola is the first handset developer to bring a Droid 2.2 OS phone to market, they should be able to tout that. This is competition, and sounding off about what you’re doing first or different is what companies have to do.
One other thing- Google is aware of the problem, and I believe they will fix it. Devices will run different versions of the OS, but individual components and features (mobile hotspot/tethering, or even stock application updates like the 2.1 Gallery) will be tailored to each iteration of the OS. Google has shown us that they’re anything but stubborn, and will address this problem. Cheers on the Android writeup!
-ph
I don’t think we’ll see an end to this any time soon, especially since this kind of thing has been going on long before android even existed with windows mobile. I remember going through the process of installing 3rd party ROMs. Good times. Except not really.
Android 2.2 is better support for rocking the exchange capacity and mobile hotspots. Both are good deals for buyers, including the old and Exchange integration, enterprise customers can use their hands to work.
cool
Where are Androids 2.1 living with Androids 4.7??? So much for fragmentation. It’s actually more like evolution. And if it’s evolution, they’re going to do only better and better in whatever sense.
One of the issues are that some phones, such as the backflip, are sold with the promise that it will be upgraded to android 2.1 soon. Several months later, loads of nothing happened. Lesson learned: Don’t trust Motorola. Will buy HTC or Samsung next time