On Wed, 23 May 2012, Jason Hsu wrote:

> Yaron, how important is it that I develop in Android 4.0?  According to 
> the article Justin cited, most Android users are still using version 
> 2.3.3 or older versions.

I almost hate to make this analogy, but a few years ago most Windows users 
were still using Windows XP, even though Windows 7 was out. If you were 
just learning to develop for Windows, would you learn to develop for old, 
about to be EOL'd software that's tied to old, about to be obsolete 
hardware, or for Windows 7?

Same with Android. Yeah, a lot of devices haven't updated to 4.0, and a 
lot won't ever. But a lot of those will be unusable soon and people will 
just buy new devices. As time moves on, less and less people will be using 
the old version.

Now if you're a developer you definitely want ALL of them, but why would 
you not start developing for the current stuff? Why learn on old versions? 
Learn what's current!

As a user, Android 4.0 is VASTLY superior to 2.3. Also as a user, you want 
something kinda future-proof. At least I do, which is why I get the 
devices I do.


> Also, the virtual Android handset in Eclipse is slow enough for version 
> 2.1.  Even snails and slugs would complain about the slowness with 
> Android 4.0.

I hesitate to ask if you're running this on under-specced hardware...


> What hardware does a smartphone offer that a tablet does not?

Other than all the phone stuff? (: Again, I'm not thinking as a user, I'm 
thinking as a developer.

Again, it's not really that important, depending on what kind of apps you 
want to develop.



-Yaron

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