There’s No Such Thing as Android, Only Android-Compatible ⇥

Tim Carmody for Wired:

Not every Android app will work or work perfectly on every Android device or OS flavor, but the vast majority will; others still can be easily tailored to work well or even better.

This is why I say that we have a huge number of Android-compatible devices. We’ve never really had anything quite like this before in mobile. That compatibility is incredibly powerful.

This is true, but the flip-side of it is equally true: consumers can’t be sure to what extent the device they’re buying is Android. It’s not black and white, but a gradient of devices that work as Google wrote, to those that barely work at all. This problem exists not just for app compatibility, but for system updates as well.

Whereas in the past software updates were important, on Android devices they’re seen by manufacturers as unnecessary and burdensome. It doesn’t matter that they may include significant new features or security patches because it’s just too much work to implement.

Carmody concludes by pointing out that this approach has been good in the short term, because it’s allowed Android’s user base to grow rapidly, but that it presents a long-term problem. I think we’re already seeing those long-term consequences with the Ice Cream Sandwich update imbroglio, and it will only get worse as the code drifts farther away from Google’s control.