Last week I posted the link to the Techcrunch article “This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like” as it referred to various company’s efforts to provide comprehensive testing coverage for Android; this involves testing on a variety of handsets and tablets.
Many of you know that I work in the field of testing and more and more frequently the projects involve mobile platforms.
There I was innocently thinking “How nice, finally Techcrunch is doing an article related to testing.” what I didn’t take into account (before my optimal caffeine dose) was the actual subject matter wasn’t purely testing, it was also related to the subject of Android Fragmentation.
Weekly “caffeine compatriot” and my Go-To Guy for all things Android, @Brassman75 posted an article on his Brassnet blog:
I’m sick and tired of all this talk of Android “fragmentation”
Where he makes some strong points against the whole issue of fragmentation. I recommend reading this.
Warptest Perspectives
From my point of view the only failure Android has is a marketing or branding failure here; one man’s fragmentation is another man’s flexibility.
Android as a mobile OS for Smartphone and Tablet may be on many devices of different configurations but this isn’t necessarily a negative.
If you are set on owning and using an Android device then there is almost certainly a device to suit your specific requirements. The official Android site allows you to browse and compare here.
The real questions remain, what is Android doing to counter this negative perception, where is it coming from and will Android continue to just let the OS sell itself?