All that is gold does not necessarily glitter. Android has been touted as one of the next great platforms which could cover the iPhone from his throne. However, this does not appear to be the situation for Android. The last problem that currently faces the platform is the number of versions of software on phones. With a range of versions available for the Android platform, many applications are not necessarily forward or backward compatible with the operating system. Add to this the various vendors provide different phones with numerous variants of the media components of hardware that most developers have nightmares to develop code for each individual phone rather than a universal application.
The inherent problem in this situation is that independence platform regardless of the hardware is a perfect utopia that developers want but can never get. Similar to the BlackBerry situation where relocate applications from other platforms is a nightmare, can happen, but not without a major fight.
From a point of view of developers smaller, Android is a difficult platform work. The amount of resources and time needed to code for a single application is significant for a small company; the need to re-code to various versions of hardware and software was not conducive to building a customer base. Not only hardware and software changes affect the overall compatibility of the app, it reflects badly the quality of construction of the app. As a result, customers are naturally wary of the platform when they experience poor quality app and interaction. The developers are then obliged to quickly write patches to solve problems, which is inherently dangerous and bad programming.
Google must address this issue carefully. There is a powerful number of phones running version Android 1.5 to high-end extremely powerful mobile with the latest version of 2.0 available. The inability to run backward or forward compatibility means only available in any version updates for apps will run on versions that are exactly the same as yours.
The iPhone is offset by the release of new phones along with the obligation to use the iTunes interface to ensure that phone's software was updated. Draconian and control as it may seem, Apple has hit a homerun mass with the iPhone because they have succeeded in controlling the experience of using the iPhone. Given that the clients know only an experience, Apple can easily run damage to software control or threats arise.
Emulators would be the next logical step to make sure that you run applications in hardware and platforms of all, however, the very nature of an emulator is to provide something to the real experience. There is always a cost of using an emulator; You can never really reflect how apps interact with the hardware and the software of the phone. Acquired, developers still remain in a ditch how to deal with variations.
Google needs to provide some means of standardizing the software available on all hardware or provide some type of an interface that would at least help users and developers to diagnose problems with your compatible Android phones. The logical assumption would be an interface based on web that allows users to download from a central location, similar to iTunes. Android market has the potential to become at this point, however, would have to be impeccably designed and integrated with the hardware. Technology specialist, Google has recently acquired, it would be logical that the market can receive a modernization which can provide an interface for mobile to stay up to date through Google.
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