Comments on: Motoblur & Android Fragmentation: The Follow-Up http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:07:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Volker Hirsch http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/comment-page-1/#comment-247 Volker Hirsch Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:51:24 +0000 http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/#comment-247 Thanks for this very insightful comment, Sebastian. I agree that it doesn't look as bleak as it was with J2ME. My concern is that carriers may feel compelled to add more and more "customized" tweaks to "their" Android. So: Android per se would indeed not appear to being as problematic as J2ME might have been. But Android + carrier SDKs very well might.<br><br>And again: I hope I am wrong! Thanks for this very insightful comment, Sebastian. I agree that it doesn't look as bleak as it was with J2ME. My concern is that carriers may feel compelled to add more and more “customized” tweaks to “their” Android. So: Android per se would indeed not appear to being as problematic as J2ME might have been. But Android + carrier SDKs very well might.

And again: I hope I am wrong!

]]> By: Sebastian Uribe http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/comment-page-1/#comment-246 Sebastian Uribe Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:08:16 +0000 http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/#comment-246 I think that the problem isn't so big as it was some years ago with j2me. The main reason fragmentation was a problem then (and still is, but a little less now), is that the devices, their software/OS and the J2ME specification were very "weak", not powerful at all. If you wanted to write some interesting application you had to take care that it would work with the quirks of each mobile device, prepare it for very strange screen sizes (why 130x130 if the standard was 128x128? why 176x204 and 176x205 from the same manufacturer?). Or if you wanted to write something as "basic" as an SMS sending application, you had to watch out for non-compatible devices, problems with the JSR implementation, etc.. But as devices, OS and the platform as a whole mature, this problems appear less and less. Look at the PC world, where game developers make a videogame that works on a huge variety & combination of different hardware.<br>My point is: If the platform is more powerful, you can make the application auto adapt to it and the additional performance and development cost of doing that will get lower and lower as time passes. E.g.: The cost of adapting from 128x128 to 176x204 is bigger than from 240x320 to 320x480, because 128x128 was itself a nightmare to work with. I don't know if Android phones have reached the point where that cost is small enough to not be a problem at all, but if not, the time that will happen is not that far. I think that the problem isn't so big as it was some years ago with j2me. The main reason fragmentation was a problem then (and still is, but a little less now), is that the devices, their software/OS and the J2ME specification were very “weak”, not powerful at all. If you wanted to write some interesting application you had to take care that it would work with the quirks of each mobile device, prepare it for very strange screen sizes (why 130×130 if the standard was 128×128? why 176×204 and 176×205 from the same manufacturer?). Or if you wanted to write something as “basic” as an SMS sending application, you had to watch out for non-compatible devices, problems with the JSR implementation, etc.. But as devices, OS and the platform as a whole mature, this problems appear less and less. Look at the PC world, where game developers make a videogame that works on a huge variety & combination of different hardware.
My point is: If the platform is more powerful, you can make the application auto adapt to it and the additional performance and development cost of doing that will get lower and lower as time passes. E.g.: The cost of adapting from 128×128 to 176×204 is bigger than from 240×320 to 320×480, because 128×128 was itself a nightmare to work with. I don't know if Android phones have reached the point where that cost is small enough to not be a problem at all, but if not, the time that will happen is not that far.

]]> By: Volker Hirsch http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/comment-page-1/#comment-176 Volker Hirsch Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:51:24 +0000 http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/#comment-176 Thanks for this very insightful comment, Sebastian. I agree that it doesn't look as bleak as it was with J2ME. My concern is that carriers may feel compelled to add more and more "customized" tweaks to "their" Android. So: Android per se would indeed not appear to being as problematic as J2ME might have been. But Android + carrier SDKs very well might.<br><br>And again: I hope I am wrong! Thanks for this very insightful comment, Sebastian. I agree that it doesn't look as bleak as it was with J2ME. My concern is that carriers may feel compelled to add more and more “customized” tweaks to “their” Android. So: Android per se would indeed not appear to being as problematic as J2ME might have been. But Android + carrier SDKs very well might.

And again: I hope I am wrong!

]]> By: Sebastian Uribe http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/comment-page-1/#comment-175 Sebastian Uribe Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:08:16 +0000 http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/#comment-175 I think that the problem isn't so big as it was some years ago with j2me. The main reason fragmentation was a problem then (and still is, but a little less now), is that the devices, their software/OS and the J2ME specification were very "weak", not powerful at all. If you wanted to write some interesting application you had to take care that it would work with the quirks of each mobile device, prepare it for very strange screen sizes (why 130x130 if the standard was 128x128? why 176x204 and 176x205 from the same manufacturer?). Or if you wanted to write something as "basic" as an SMS sending application, you had to watch out for non-compatible devices, problems with the JSR implementation, etc.. But as devices, OS and the platform as a whole mature, this problems appear less and less. Look at the PC world, where game developers make a videogame that works on a huge variety & combination of different hardware.<br>My point is: If the platform is more powerful, you can make the application auto adapt to it and the additional performance and development cost of doing that will get lower and lower as time passes. E.g.: The cost of adapting from 128x128 to 176x204 is bigger than from 240x320 to 320x480, because 128x128 was itself a nightmare to work with. I don't know if Android phones have reached the point where that cost is small enough to not be a problem at all, but if not, the time that will happen is not that far. I think that the problem isn't so big as it was some years ago with j2me. The main reason fragmentation was a problem then (and still is, but a little less now), is that the devices, their software/OS and the J2ME specification were very “weak”, not powerful at all. If you wanted to write some interesting application you had to take care that it would work with the quirks of each mobile device, prepare it for very strange screen sizes (why 130×130 if the standard was 128×128? why 176×204 and 176×205 from the same manufacturer?). Or if you wanted to write something as “basic” as an SMS sending application, you had to watch out for non-compatible devices, problems with the JSR implementation, etc.. But as devices, OS and the platform as a whole mature, this problems appear less and less. Look at the PC world, where game developers make a videogame that works on a huge variety & combination of different hardware.
My point is: If the platform is more powerful, you can make the application auto adapt to it and the additional performance and development cost of doing that will get lower and lower as time passes. E.g.: The cost of adapting from 128×128 to 176×204 is bigger than from 240×320 to 320×480, because 128×128 was itself a nightmare to work with. I don't know if Android phones have reached the point where that cost is small enough to not be a problem at all, but if not, the time that will happen is not that far.

]]> By: Yomi http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/comment-page-1/#comment-174 Yomi Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:13:31 +0000 http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/#comment-174 This direction in which Android is going is the very direction that Symbian tried to walk away from - Symbian UIQ, Symbian S60, and Symbian S80. This time, it looks like it is going to be worse.<br><br>We'll see how it all turn out. This direction in which Android is going is the very direction that Symbian tried to walk away from – Symbian UIQ, Symbian S60, and Symbian S80. This time, it looks like it is going to be worse.

We'll see how it all turn out.

]]> By: Alfio Lo Castro http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/comment-page-1/#comment-173 Alfio Lo Castro Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:38:55 +0000 http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/10/13/motoblur-android-fragmentation-the-follow-up/#comment-173 I'm with you, I think this is the first act for an android fragmentation scenario. I experienced the nightmare in the j2me development and I recall when Nokia introduced its advanced APIs (the nokia ui apis) hailed as a really good thing, motorola introduced its too and Siemens and so on. This plus the dozen of screen sizes, memory capacity etc, turned the j2me development in a nightmare.<br>Looks like androind is going in the same direction. I'm with you, I think this is the first act for an android fragmentation scenario. I experienced the nightmare in the j2me development and I recall when Nokia introduced its advanced APIs (the nokia ui apis) hailed as a really good thing, motorola introduced its too and Siemens and so on. This plus the dozen of screen sizes, memory capacity etc, turned the j2me development in a nightmare.
Looks like androind is going in the same direction.

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