That strategy works reasonably well on iOS devices where the adoption rate of new versions is fairly rapid. I'd have no problem with doing an app that required 5.0 or above. Android is a different beast with 4.0 just starting to appear but with something like 100M devices running 2.3 or less. The OP just wanted something to test on so he could show a potential employer that he'd worked through the process from start through posting to the Google store. For that a cheap phone works as well as a new tablet. --rick On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:55 PM, Yaron <tclug at freakzilla.com> wrote: > 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 > > -- > > ______________________________**_________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/**mailman/listinfo/tclug-list<http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list> > -- *Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20120523/ca76c8ca/attachment-0001.html>