[PCWorld]

Post your comments for We're Not Waiting for Android 5 'Jelly Bean,' Developers Say here

[MikeYostjodt]

There is a new Android OS released every year, why would they wait? Oh don't wait for Jellybean wait for Android 6.0.... Dumb article.

[AlexLaird]

MikeYostjodt, on 18 May 2012 - 05:35 AM, said:

There is a new Android OS released every year, why would they wait? Oh don't wait for Jellybean wait for Android 6.0.... Dumb article.

Because many of us did choose to wait for the Ice Cream Sandwich release, and for many good reasons. This article simply informs end-users that this won't be the general approach of Android developers in the future, because Android has finally become a much more mature operating system and can better handle differences between versions (much of that thanks to Ice Cream Sandwich). Considering the Android release schedule has been more frequent than most systems developers write for, this article is relevant.

[kronoscornelius]

If you are a developer learning Android, you should just cover Gingerbread and ICS. All the rest falls into line.

It is not about what version of Android the users have, it is about what features your program have. Once you know what features you need, most developers discover they can code for gingerbread and have that run on all Androids.

Any features in Jellybean not present in the current Android, you'll be better of implementing yourself because it will be more than a year before JellyBean becomes mainstream. Just like you don't expect all Honda Accords to be model 2013 by November.

I never see PCWorld complaining about the fragmentation in the browser market ? There is HTML5, HTML4, and all these specifications. I guess people will stop using the Internet.

[Mattvm8v]

kronoscornelius, on 18 May 2012 - 07:04 AM, said:

If you are a developer learning Android, you should just cover Gingerbread and ICS. All the rest falls into line.

It is not about what version of Android the users have, it is about what features your program have. Once you know what features you need, most developers discover they can code for gingerbread and have that run on all Androids.

Any features in Jellybean not present in the current Android, you'll be better of implementing yourself because it will be more than a year before JellyBean becomes mainstream. Just like you don't expect all Honda Accords to be model 2013 by November.

I never see PCWorld complaining about the fragmentation in the browser market ? There is HTML5, HTML4, and all these specifications. I guess people will stop using the Internet.

Operating systems aren't browsers and it's just stupid to compare fragmentation in a browser with fragmentation in an operating system. Plus just because Android 1.0 and Android 4.0 are both Android operating systems it doesn't mean they run exactly alike and that any app that runs with Android 4.0 can run with Android 1.0. People just don't understand how changes in an operating system can affect apps, and people just assume you can just make things compatible without effort. If that were the case, every developer would just raise the compatibility version and wouldn't feel the need to stop support for older operating systems. After all why stop support for one operating system if the app is universal? That would cut down on profits.