Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic Android - what's with all the different versions?

The announcement of the Tesco Hudl has piqued my interest in Android.

However, I must admit that I don't know enough about Android to understand whether this item is mainstream or closed shop. I simply do not understand all the different android versions, if they are specific to a manufacturer and if a device is android upgradable.

Can someone please enlighten me?

Also, anyone who has developed for Android, can you possibly explain whether an app is cross platform/version or device specific. If cross platform, how do you develop for different device specifications - its bad enough with a controlled environment such as iOS let alone developing for more flavours of chocolate bars than I've ever heard of.

Eeek, where to start?
It's a mess. The underlying OS is fairly easy to understand. I have a few odd eval boards running pure Android (from the Linaro foundation) which is just another Linux distro in essence.
Then there's the Google release, which integrates with Google's package management. Amazon do something similar with their own package management system. You can install the Amazon package manager on the Google release too, which complicates things.
Most OEMs are taking the Google release and putting their own UI 'enhancements' on top of it. Some of them are following the Amazon path, either literally or with another package manager.

The development side is even worse. You can code an Android app in pure Java which should run on any Android device, so long as you don't exclude it (which some developers choose to do, either for compatibility or competition). Then there are the native development kits, which will let you compile ARMv7 or x86 code and hook directly into the APIs through the kernel IIRC.

Android is "owned" by Google but supplied Free as Open Source (AOSP) to any Manufacturers that want to use it as an OS on their Device

Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Huawai, Lenovo, Oppo are all examples of companies who take AOSP and apply their own "differentiators" and UI enhancements to it.

Cyanogen Inc are a company that supply various ROM's to run on various manufacturer devices and keep the ROM's free of bloatware

More importantly, the Providers (Vodafone, O2, Telefonica, Three etc. and AT&T, Verizon, Sprint in the US) all tend to add bloatware to the phones they provide on contract, even though this is usually relatively easy to eliminate

As so many Manufacturers and Providers are involved in the supply chain, Devices can fall behind the curve when it comes to Upgrades

However, Android 4.x Jellybean now has about 60% of the Android market and is growing rapidly (Android has close to 80% of the worldwide smartphone market)

I would advise sticking to Developing for 4.1 and 4.2 (as there shouldn't be major differences in App compatibility) and also for 1080p screens.........developing for that market is where the "money|" is, i.e. where people are more likely to spend money and time buying Apps

As regards the Hudl, I would strongly advise looking at the 2012 Nexus 7 instead for a similar price, as this will have a better screen, faster ROM and much more frequent OS Updates (Android 4.4 Kit-Kat is imminent)

The Nexus 7 August 2013 has an even better screen and processor and is also worth a look

Google supply the Nexus range of Phones and Tablets and are free from bloatware and will offer the most frequent and regular means of access to OS Updates

That's sound advice from Ronnie, if you use the NDK, target the stuff running 4.X on ARM processors, there's quite a lot you can do in a short amount of time. Supporting the landfill stuff running 2.2/2.3 or using Intel processors is a chronic waste of time.

I would say that in terms of difficulty for developers, Android is still better than Windows, as you have UNIX style package management to ensure your libraries are present OR to exclude devices which do not support those libraries.

Jelly Bean having 60% of the market share is a little misleading. Jelly Bean is split up into the following:

Jelly Bean is actually split up into several versions as listed above. As of Sept. 4, the actual number of users that log into Google Play from Dashboards from the Android Developer's site is as follows.

4.1.x 36.6% as of Sept 4
4.2.x 8.5%
4.3 is about .1%

This is posted in the Wikipedia listing for Android Operating System. Since they are getting the information from a reliable source, it's pretty accurate in terms of USER BASE distribution.

The biggest problem is that when Google updates Android OS, it takes the OEMs which represent the majority of the Android installed base at least 6 months or longer until they update an existing piece of hardware. BUT, some models, won't get updated. EVER. So if you bought a 4.0 phone, you may not get 4.3. If you got a 2.x phone you won't get updated to 4.3.

Now, Google has talked about 4.4 KiKat, but Google hasn't released it yet on the Nexus product line and then it will take about 6 months for the OEMs to start releasing new product or upgrading existing units.

If you want a product that will always get the latest and greatest OS, then you need to stay away from the OEM versions of Android until Google decides not to distribute the OS in the manner for which they are currently doing their licensing. But I don't see that changing, so it's either just buying only a Nexus-based product or switching platforms, otherwise, it's waiting and waiting for OS updates and unfortunately these updates include bug fixes, security patches and whatever new features Google releases.

AS far as developers? The money is made in developing iOS apps. But if you are going to develop for Android, you kind of have to follow what are the flagship models using as those customers most likely have more money to spend and are more willing to spend money, but if you want to go after the biggest piece, then you still have to support GIngerbread since that still represents a large population and that way you'll be supporting 95% of the Android market.

Fixed that for you.

Also, 4.1/4.2/4.3 of Jellybean are minor feature release numbers, there are patches being applied to 4.1.X for security reasons which most OEMs can roll-out pretty quickly, even if they haven't moved that handset over to 4.2 or 4.3.

Damning report on Android benchmarking...

Cheating Android Benchmarking