Watch out... frag!

No, this is not a post about Quake, but about a question on many people's minds at the moment: is Android becoming too fragmented? As Google's operating system grows in popularity and usage, many in the mobile industry believe the platform is becoming increasingly fragmented, with various versions of Android cropping up on hundreds of different devices, all offering varying features, and in some cases, hindered by carrier restrictions and modifications.

The biggest issue here is the confusion it creates for the consumer. For example, one device running a recent version of Android will support the latest version of Google Maps and it's excellent Navigation feature, but another similarly specced device does not, creating platform inconsistency, and detracting away from what is a fantastic operating system overall. This also creates issues for application developers. When developing apps for mobile devices, naturally a developer wants to reach the biggest potential customer base possible, so having multiple versions of an OS with differing capabilities makes the decision of which version to target a tougher one.

The situation appears to have improved somewhat over the last few months, with reports stating that between 80 and 90% of Android devices now run version 2.x and above. However, what is sure to make things more interesting is the arrival of Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" and the slew of tablets that are sure to follow in it's wake. Will Google continue in it's "shepherd" role, as mentioned by Andy Rubin at the recent Honeycomb event, or will the influx of tablets increase fragmentation and push Google into taking a more active role in software maintenance?

With the subject of fragmentation seemingly intertwined with the Android OS at the moment, it is easy to overlook other mobile platforms. Take a step back… is Android the only OS with fragmentation issues? What about Apple's iOS, or RIM's BlackBerry OS? The argument could be made that these are also fragmented to some degree, as both run on a range of devices. Apple have several generations of iPod touch, along with the original iPhone, that are not supported by iOS 4, so not all devices support all applications and vice versa. Combine that with the huge screen resolution differences between the previous generation iPhones and the iPhone 4, and you have a significant difference. The same also applies to BlackBerry devices, with BlackBerry 6 currently only compatible with the BlackBerry Torch, Style, Curve 3G and select Bold models. Although perhaps not as severe as Android's issues, clearly the iOS and BlackBerry platforms also have varying fragmentation across the board, and as other mobile platforms expand their reach and mature, this will no doubt affect them as well.

The debate over fragmentation across OS's is sure to rage on. Combine the pace at which tech companies are iterating devices and the ever-expanding mobile operating system space, fragmentation is sure to be with us for a long time to come.