Android fragmentation is real.

Great research by Michael Degusta.

When you buy an iPhone, you’re Apple’s customer and they’re committed to supporting you and your device. You will receive firmware updates in pace with all other customers, barring some features which your device can’t support, for at least three years after the device’s introduction.

Not so for Android users. From the data available, anyone who buys an android device has no reasonable expectation of enjoying the benefits of future updates in a timely fashion - or at all.

Apple’s been accused of encouraging users to buy new versions of their products by loading the new ones with features that the old ones are denied. That’s totally fair: it’s called a product upgrade cycle. What’s the ponit of introducing a new product if it isn’t better than the previous one?

But look at the chart. Look at the staggering number of Android devices that have never been up to date. Or moe laughably, which were up to date for only a few weeks of their lifecycle. Most were running out of date software at the time of their launch, and never caught up.

And few of the Android devices displayed have enjoyed official support for more than ten months.

When Ice Cream Sandwich was announced, which percentage of the current Android installed base was certain they would be able to update their phone to ICS? And how many of those could expect a timely update, rather than a several-month delay?

It’s shameful, but who’s to blame? Not Google. They never made a commitment to end-users; their ‘customers’ are handset makers who license Android. And those handset makers? They sell their phones to carriers, not to end users. And the carriers created neither the hardware nor the software, they only sell the product as-is, so how can they be expected to provide updates to their customers?

Android users get what they buy at the time they buy it and shouldn’t rationally expect future updates like iPhone customers do. Considering Android’s impressive market share, apparently a lot of people don’t care if they’re running outdated firmware. So that works out fine.

As of this month, 38% of currently operating Android devices are running version 2.3, the most recent version, introduced in 2010. Ten months ago.

iOS 5 was introduced on October 12 and within five days, 1 in 3 iOS devices was running 5.0.

If you were an app developer, what would this mean for you?

If you develop for iOS and a new version comes out, you can reasonably expect most of your customers to be using the new version within three to six months. So you’re encouraged to focus your efforts on the exciting new functions of the new OS.

If you develop for Android, any new OS update will take over a year to reach the majority of your potential customers. And that’s largely because so many new customers are buying into Android, rather than because existing customers can upgrade.

This doesn’t mean that Android innovation is lagging, neither in the OS nor the apps.

It means, however, that fragmentation rules the Android culture. Those who can run the New Shit on their devices, those that might some day get to enjoy it, and those that never will. App developers who are willing to target the cutting-edge minority of Android users by exploiting the New Shit to its full potential, and developers who stick to the lowest common denominator to serve as many customers as possible.

Android fragmentation is real.

Source: understatementblog