Apple Highlights Low Fragmentation Among iOS Devices in Direct Jab at Android

[blackcrayon]

Here's why. Try to sell an app today that will run on an iPad 1 or a touch 2nd gen. You can't. Apple requires that ppl buy new hardware.

Note how most current apps in the store still say "Requires iOS 4.3 or later". Even if they required iOS 5, which they probably will after iOS 7 is released, apps could *still* work on an iPad 1 if the hardware can handle it.

Apple must be concerned about their loss of market share to even bring this up.

As a part time developer, I'm interested in knowing the iOS breakdown of active users. I actually had no idea it was this high; for this reason I might not even bother having my apps support even iOS 5 moving forward as it wouldn't affect many people.

Hardware "fragmentation" is only an issues in the context of software developers. Users mostly benefit from it because they have a huge choice of hardware.

Hardware fragmentation can limit user choices in ways as well. Huge variations in hardware also equals smaller numbers within specific models, which equals lesser choice of 3rd party accessories, at least when the specific physical design is involved. And then you get stuff like games optimized only for a specific GPU.

 

[Beezzy]

It's going to be more fragmented now once iOS7 is released. I have a feeling adoption rates will not be as high as previous iOS, people are afraid of change.

You're gonna be so wrong on people not switching, the only people who won't switch are the iPhone 4 users who can't upgrade.

 

[Tech198]

You're gonna be so wrong on people not switching, the only people who won't switch are the iPhone 4 users who can't upgrade.

Ok, but there is more to that.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

and I guess if Aplle would offer me that I could update my iPad 1 to iOS 6 I would happiliy do so. But no love. This part of the segmentation is their own fault. Same for my iPhone 3G.

 

[Yoshi Yogurt]

Still on IOS 4 on my 3G...I am the 1%

 

[GoodWatch]

Something only becomes a problem the moment Apple says so. Pure FUD. I'm in Indonesia now and 99.9% of the people I encounter use either a Chinese made Android phone, a BB rip-off ('BlueBerry') or an iPhone clone running propriety (Chinese) software. Only the very affluent and tourists sport real iPhones. They just cannot afford a phone that costs in excess of 5 months worth of salary. I doubt if any, if at all, of those tens of millions see 'fragmentation' (if they even know what that is) as a problem. They just enjoy using KakaoTalk, Loving Kisses or whatever it is on their phones that are still expensive to them. The pre-paid tariffs BTW are very affordable over here

 

[Fukui]

Yeah but all of iOS's new features aren't available on all devices. iOS will have even more features that won't be available on older devices.

Doesn’t matter; this is aimed at developers, not users.

iOS 7 may work less well on older systems and some features may not be present, but that won’t have an impact on developers because the APIs are all the same regardless.
(Granted android has the compatibility libraries to help out on that.)

 

[vmistery]

Software support was one of the reasons I switched back from android to iphone. I did not trust the manufacturers to give timely updates if at all. When I came back I straight away updated my ios 4 3GS to 6. Then decided to come back and painlessly move too an iphone 5.
It's strange that on the OS X front the opposite happened. I was so annoyed my Mac mini and OHs MacBook couldn't upgrade because of gpu limitations we switched them over to windows.

 

[tdream]

Fragmentation may suck from a developers point of view but from a user's perspective I find it better to remain on the software that was released at that time. iPhone 4 was best with iOS 4, everything was snappy

iOS 5 things got slower and we were left behind with certain features (ahem siri). Recently updated it with iOS 6 oh my god browsing the Apple website on that phone with iOS 6 is horrid. Very slow. It's not designed for the iPhone 4. Yeah it can run it with even less iOS 6 features supported, no panoramic camera, still no siri, no maps flyover or turn by turn.

It's funny how snappy and quick things are when you first buy the phone then things get slower, because apps demand more resources, apis use extra processes to do the same thing done much easier on a newer phone with newer cpu. iOS 6 on an iPhone 5 is much different than iOS 6 on an iPhone 4. Same thing with iOS 4 on the 3G, omg that was horrible. So IMO it's better to stick with the iOS version that was released when you got your phone.

Yeah this will cause fragmentation but it's a better user experience for you the user and if you acutally do want to upgrade do it for real and upgrade the hardware as well.

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Software support was one of the reasons I switched back from android to iphone. I did not trust the manufacturers to give timely updates if at all. When I came back I straight away updated my ios 4 3GS to 6. Then decided to come back and painlessly move too an iphone 5.
It's strange that on the OS X front the opposite happened. I was so annoyed my Mac mini and OHs MacBook couldn't upgrade because of gpu limitations we switched them over to windows.

It wasn't painless, you saw how crappy iOS 6 was on 3GS and bought an iPhone 5, hardly an example of good support.

 

[vmistery]

Fragmentation may suck from a developers point of view but from a user's perspective I find it better to remain on the software that was released at that time. iPhone 4 was best with iOS 4, everything was snappy

iOS 5 things got slower and we were left behind with certain features (ahem siri). Recently updated it with iOS 6 oh my god browsing the Apple website on that phone with iOS 6 is horrid. Very slow. It's not designed for the iPhone 4. Yeah it can run it with even less iOS 6 features supported, no panoramic camera, still no siri, no maps flyover or turn by turn.

It's funny how snappy and quick things are when you first buy the phone then things get slower, because apps demand more resources, apis use extra processes to do the same thing done much easier on a newer phone with newer cpu. iOS 6 on an iPhone 5 is much different than iOS 6 on an iPhone 4. Same thing with iOS 4 on the 3G, omg that was horrible. So IMO it's better to stick with the iOS version that was released when you got your phone.

Yeah this will cause fragmentation but it's a better user experience for you the user and if you acutally do want to upgrade do it for real and upgrade the hardware as well.

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It wasn't painless, you saw how crappy iOS 6 was on 3GS and bought an iPhone 5, hardly an example of good support.

No I bought a 5 because of the larger better screen. Ios6 runs fine on the 3GS and my sister still uses it.

 

[tdream]

No I bought a 5 because of the larger better screen. Ios6 runs fine on the 3GS and my sister still uses it.

I feel bad for your sis

 

[Hell0W0rld]

Wow, over a third using an OS that's over 2 years old

Ever heard of Windows XP...

 

[vmistery]

I feel bad for your sis

Well it's better than the wildfire she had before...

 

[nikaru]

Ok, so fromthis chart my conclusion is that almost half of the android users actualy use low end smart phones which doesnt support higher version of the OS. Those people didnt had the chance to chose betwen iOS and Android so they bought some low end samsung just have the basic features. The true android fan group is the one that own moder smarthphone in the same price range as the iPhone. The other half are people who cant afford an iPhone. I know many people who will chanhe to iPhone in a heartbeat if they can afford it. And ofcourse I know people who switched from IOS to Android but They are minority.

I think the survey is correct. Two weeks period is a lot. Almost every iPhone owner accese Appstore once in a month. To install an update or download app, book, podcast, song or something. I still use iPhone 2G because I dont have the money to update and I dont want to use android.

Its the same situation with the notebooks. 3/4 of my friends want macbook but cant afford it, so they are obligated to buy a cheap windows machine. That dont make them Windows fans. The same way, many android owners are not true android fans, they are just stuck in this price range and cant escape, because there is no other option.

 

[blackcrayon]

Something only becomes a problem the moment Apple says so. Pure FUD.

So, you're saying no one talked about Android fragmentation until Apple mentioned it? If so, I think you're mistaken... Just because there are people oblivious to it doesn't mean it has no effect on the platform. If you accept that Android based phones outsell iOS (or any other) based phones by a large margin, you also need to take into account what that larger # represents to get the full picture.

 

[jaymzuk]

I think you misunderstood the original article.

The original article is aimed at developers who are responsible for making an app compatible with as many devices as is reasonable possible. So, when you point out that most major apps are backwards compatible, you prove the articles point: the developers had to spend time and money making it backwards compatible.

That's money they don't have to spend developing on iOS.

I understand the original article.

The main challenges that Android has faced have been Android's historically low market share making it uneconomical to develop for, which is not longer the case, and 'fragmentation, which might be a hindrance to developers, but clearly isn't such a large enough issue to be preventing major apps from being made for the platform.

'Android is fragmented, but you'll develop for it anyway because there's an economic case for doing so' sounds a lot less dramatic than 'Android fragmentation LOLZ'

 

[marclondon]

A few of the enhancements in the latest Android are nice but if you really want them most can be replicated with a third party app. Also, if an OS upgrade is available it can slow older hardware down - I've put Jelly Bean on my Galaxy S2 and it's a bit slower loading apps and booting up now.

The vast majority of users are not bothered by this because they only use the basic functions. It would never occur to my wife to upgrade her Samsung smartphone.

The big difference in my opinion is the control of third party apps - Apple's is very strict but Android is like the wild west and you have to be careful what you do (but it can also be fun).

All the high end smartphones are amazing devices really - I was in bed in London last night watching live US TV on the S2 streamed from a WiFi router.

 

[XboxMySocks]

My Gosh! who dubbed those Android codenames?

Ben and Jerry

 

[Fishticks]

People want to be sure to take advantage of iOs Maps.

 

[Sedrick]

Honestly, who is the 1% on an OS older than 6? Either get a new device or upgrade. Its not safe to live in the stone age.

Still on IOS 4 on my 3G...I am the 1%

4.1 on my 3GS and 5.1 on my 4 and 4S (distributed to wife and son). All are still jailbroke. I do not upgrade the OS just because I get a little popup that says I'm due. If it adds nothing relevant, I leave it be. (and please don't bring up security patches... on a phone...)

I did upgrade my iPad to iOS 6 (and jailbroke), so I could check it out, but it added nothing that I was interested in, so I left it off my other devices.

 

[SpaceKitty]

I bought an iPad Mini two weeks ago that came with 6.0.1. It's jailbroken so I can't update to the latest. Many people stay on older versions for many reasons.

I still use my 3GS as well and I have a 4S. I likely won't be buying a new iPhone at least for another year, no need to. I bought my 4S new in January.

 

[4mat]

Honestly I wish they had a way to not include all those crappy pre-paid android phones that probably stuck on Gingerbread and to me are not true smartphones. That way we could get a better look at fragmentation and see where Android really sits in terms of both OS version and market share.

Or a better way is to only show devices less than 3 years old. Does Android still allow people like Samsung or whoever to put Gingerbread on a new phone? If not this would be a great metric.

You seem to be forgetting a major point. Most people buying smartphone today aren't tech enthusiasts. These people probably have never heard the terms 'iOS', 'Android', 'Windows Phone', etc. Phone manufacturers and carriers keep these crappy low end devices around because they're are cheap and make a lot of money especially when they are sold on multi-year contracts. Then the carriers and manufactures never put any money of effort in to update these phones and consumers for the most part have no clue.

I have seen recently Froyo handsets, WP7 handsets, iPhone 3G S's and OLD Blackberrys still on sale in phone carrier retail shops to buy outright or on contract.

I think it's safe to say this is a contributing factor to fragmentation on almost all OS platforms.

 

[Otterblue]

I'm part of the 0% using iOS 7 Beta.

 

[Ramchi]

Stale OS with a closed ecosystem will not fragment for sure...only feature rich, customisable OS can be fragmented...Even if you want to fragment how will you do it unless users choose to stay with older versions or Apple refuses to upgrade for older devices?

 

[kwfl]

Fragmented. So what?