Caveat Emptor.... Android Fragmentation Redux and the Tablet Experience - 14 Sep 2010 - by gins

Last fall, an ex-colleague of mine wrote about Android OS fragmentation, discussing the variations due to smartphone form factors, OS versions, operator requirements, and Google Experience vs non-Google experience devices. Good reading. With the impending release of Android tablets, the problem, and its potential impact on the user experience, has only grown.

The user experience depends upon a complex interplay of the device, skilled application developers, and wireless access (WiFi, 3G, or 4G) if required by the application. Even on the iPad, though Apple controls some of these variables, there is a vast difference between those applications crafted for the iPad's form factor, and those that only rely on pixel doubling.

Android developers are in fact faced with a moving target - multiple OS versions, a diversity of form factors and price-points that impact display quality and resolution, CPU performance, and memory, and OEM customizations such as UI overlays. This is coupled with statements by none other than Google's Android team concerning Froyo's (2.2) lack of optimization of use on tablets.

What exactly does this mean when considering whether to purchase that shiny Samsung Galaxy Tab in the window. And what user experience would one expect from a tablet rumored to be $35 or even $100? How does an application developer optimize for both the high-end and the low-end, for both tablets and smartphones? OEMs developing the tablets, Google and the Android OS community, mobile operators potentially carrying the tablets under subsidy, and the application developer community have one opportunity to get this right to avoid confusion and unmet expectations. At least in the near term, part of the burden will lie with the user. Trust, but verify, and heed the watchwords, Caveat Emptor. And to the OEMs... Caveat Venditor.