Wow- feel the pain of developing for Android!

Imagine if Windows developers had to build different versions of their
applications for different PC manufacturers. Or even different
versions for various models by a single manufacturer. That’s what some
Android developers are saying they are facing now.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/11...ndroids-armor/

We’ve spoken with a number of high profile Android application
developers. All of them, without exception, have told me they are
extremely frustrated with Android right now. For the iPhone, they
build once and maintain the code base. On Android, they built once for
v.1.5, but are getting far less installs than the iPhone.

And now they’re faced with a landslide of new handsets, some running v.
1.6 and some courageous souls even running android v.2.0. All those
manufacturers/carriers are racing to release their phones by the 2009
holiday season, and want to ensure the hot applications will work on
their phones. And here’s the problem – in almost every case, we hear,
there are bugs and more serious problems with the apps.

There are whispers of backwards and forwards compatibility issues as
well, making the problem even worse.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/11...ndroids-armor/


Some manufacturers/carriers are opting out of the Android marketplace
altogether, and only allowing custom applications on the phone. These
devices can still use the Android robot logo, which is creative
commons, but they aren’t able to use the Android text logo, which
requires that they pass a compatibility test suite.

Developers are frustrated. And consumers will be confused when their
“Android” phone won’t let them download their favorite third party
applications.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/11...ndroids-armor/

Is Tech Crunch onto something? Wound a now any informed person really
want to recommend Android to a friend if they hope to keep him as a
friend?

Read the whole tech crunch article for even more insight into the
hidden problems with Android which could create a very painful
experience for developers and users.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/11...ndroids-armor/