The sorry state of Android hardware fragmentation

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I think this issue is blown out of proportion. As a user, if an app doesn't work on my phone, i'll go looking for alternatives. The pain is on the developer's side, who have to ensure their apps work across variety of devices.

The more relevant issue to users is that of OS upgrade support, or rather the lack of it. Apple can make most of their phones upgrade to the latest iOS, but on the Android side, witness how even today phones are launching with Gingerbread.
 
^^ Custom ROMS FTW for Androids
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thats the primarily the main reason why I want to join the droid bandwagon
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Aces170 said:
^^ Custom ROMS FTW for Androids
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thats the primarily the main reason why I want to join the droid bandwagon
happy19.gif
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True, but the problem is that these ROMs should ideally be pushed out by the vendors, and not by enthusiasts. I believe most manufacturers will not, for eg entertain warrantly claims with custom ROMs. And getting root on devices without vendor support/winking is a pain in the butt.
 
Aces170 said:
^^ Custom ROMS FTW for Androids
happy19.gif
thats the primarily the main reason why I want to join the droid bandwagon
happy19.gif
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Custom roms too have their share of problems. CM9 alpha on my SGS doesn't have fm radio, and h/w accelaration for videos doesn't work properly. I'm convinced that getting a nexus is the only sure way of enjoying android - but then the galaxy nexus is not that great a phone
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CM9 alpha on my SGS doesn't have fm radio, and h/w accelaration for videos doesn't work properly
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Its in alpha stage, atleast you are getting support despite Samsung not providing any updates. In addition your phone is two generations old, dont think even Apple supports two generation old devices, for its new OS. Windows is worse, as dont think any of the current generation phone will get the WP 8 update.
 
^Yeah, the developers are doing a commendable job. The problem is that getting drivers for all the h/w components. Nexus phones score over the others in this. Not only do they get the best support from google, they also have good support from developers. e.g. Nexus S which is quite similar to the SGS has official ICS.
 
This happens the most with Qualcomm Cpus as they don't release the source code for their GPUs and stuff leading to custom ROM developers working their way around without many stuff like H/W acceleration etc.
 
Aces170 said:
In addition your phone is two generations old, dont think even Apple supports two generation old devices, for its new OS. Windows is worse, as dont think any of the current generation phone will get the WP 8 update.
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Apple does. 3GS received iOS 5. No idea about Windows though
 
Marcus Fenix said:
This happens the most with Qualcomm Cpus as they don't release the source code for their GPUs and stuff leading to custom ROM developers working their way around without many stuff like H/W acceleration etc.
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Any idea which SoCs are the most 'developer' friendly? Maybe this should be the criteria for my next upgrade. What chipset does HD2 have? It surely gets the most love from developers.
 
Any idea which SoCs are the most 'developer' friendly? Maybe this should be the criteria for my next upgrade. What chipset does HD2 have? It surely gets the most love from developers.
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Nvidia is the worst, even I was contemplating to factor in the "openness" of SOC for my purchase, I definitely would not give much importance to performance, as almost all dual cores are powerful enough for the time being.
 
^ Well then who else is there apart from Qualcomm and nvidia? Maybe we should wait for intels offerings.
 
I think nVidia might not be that open to releasing APIs and stuff but similar to TWIMP in the desktop arena they work very proactively with devs to bring out the best that their overhyped SoC's are capable of.Look at Shadowgun which is the best looking FPS in android today.
 
Marcus Fenix said:
I think nVidia might not be that open to releasing APIs and stuff but similar to TWIMP in the desktop arena they work very proactively with devs to bring out the best that their overhyped SoC's are capable of.Look at Shadowgun which is the best looking FPS in android today.
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They might work with game devs, but here we are concerned about the custom rom devs
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The choice of the Android phone you buy makes a big difference in support (whether custom or from manufacturers). As tech enthusiasts, least we should do is make the right choice and avoid manufacturers who care less about supporting their handsets in a timely manner. Agreed, common man who buys Android handsets without all the research will suffer. In Android world, it's not as simple as buying an iphone and Apple taking care of you for 3 years.

zhopudey said:
Any idea which SoCs are the most 'developer' friendly? Maybe this should be the criteria for my next upgrade. What chipset does HD2 have? It surely gets the most love from developers.
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TI is the most developer friendly followed by Exynos AFAIK, probably the reason why Google stuck with TI for Galaxy Nexus to support openness instead of going for the faster Exynos, even though it's manufactured by Samsung. Qualcomm at least released the ICS drivers for Arm v6, but Nvidia is not very friendly in this regard as I think even the Tegra 2 drivers aren't released yet, not sure though.
 
arun687 said:
I think even the Tegra 2 drivers aren't released yet, not sure though.
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Yes, thats what NI rohan ranting in his blog posts, and NI shifting to TI OMAP bandwagon this time..

And this is the same issue with Raspberry Pi, We wont get the full SOC documentation.
 
zhopudey said:
^ Well then who else is there apart from Qualcomm and nvidia? Maybe we should wait for intels offerings.
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Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Nvidia's Tegra, Samsung's Exynos, TI's OMAP. Plus 2 new players coming up very soon - STEricsson's NovaThor and Huawei's K3V2. Also Intel's offering in the near future.

Regarding openness, I think TI would be the best when it comes to offering driver support. Samsung aren't as friendly as they claim/seem to be. Nvidia is the worst.

I would love to see how STEricsson and Huawei play with their new hardware. I personally believe Huawei could very well be one of the major players here. They might not be the best in terms of performance as they claim to be, but in order to survive against the other big manufacturers, they're gonna have to do something different. Providing good support to developers would surely improve their reputation.
 
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