N8ter
Banned
Nope, it is not really a problem for a developer if there are multiple versions of an OS out there, as long as he can be assured that there are a limited number of them, and those older versions will disappear over some reasonable time frame. This can't happen if manufacturers and carriers keep selling obsolete versions to new customers.
Nobody ever whines about Windows being fragmented, at least not since XP replaced Windows ME. Even though there are lots of XP systems out there, there aren't any new XP systems being sold anymore, so nowadays it's possible for a developer to simply ignore the existence of XP and target the Vista APIs.
Android is in the situation that Windows would be in if Dell and Gateway were still selling Windows 95 systems. Except worse, because the handset manufacturers and carriers insist on doing their own versions of the OS with their own bugs and compatibility issues.
Hypothetically, if no Android handset were ever upgraded, but each new handset sold came with the latest version of Android, then although there would be fragmentation it would be very managable; by now nearly all handsets still under contract would be running Gingerbread, and new development projects could target Ice Cream Sandwich without a second's hesitation.
If Apollo doesn't come to the older WP7 devices then yes there will be fragmentation. But that fragmentation will exist *anyway*, unless you believe that WP8 will be coming to these little 256MB Tango devices as well. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Tango after WP8 comes out. I suspect we're heading to a fragmented WP world whether we like it or not.
You're wrong about xp. It's marketshare is still massive especially for business applications abandoning it can be suicide even now. That can work for some apps. Ie photoshop users are less likely to be using legacy windows versions. But for stuff like general office apps and even games in many instances you cannot in good faith drop xp support. Too many people still run it.
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