I see the versions of Android 2.0 and 2.01 are obsolete.
And when im looking at the android fragemtation cakes 2.0 is not even listed, does this mean there are no more android 2.0 devices out there?
http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html
Because that would mean I could target 2.1 as minimum target instead of 2.0, and would reach the same number of devices.
Is it really possible that there are no more devices with 2.0 and 2.01?
I googled but didnt find any informations about it.
Vino
If you check out this page, you notice that 2.0 isn't mentioned, so you shouldn't be worried about devices with android 2.0. Basically afaik 2.0 has been replaced by 2.1.
Related
I found that Jelly Bean is still taking a fair amount of installed devices.
If I plan to make an application for Jelly Bean, do I have to set source code compatibility 1.6?
Jellybean is 4.1-4.3
If you are looking at that api 16 that's different than android version 1.6
At this point, it looks like anything under 2.2 (froyo) is on less than 0.2% of android devices.
In this graphic you can see a distribution of Android platform versions used by Android smartphone owners in October 2015. The figures are based on the number of Android devices that have accessed the Google Play Store within a 7-day period ending on October 5th, 2015.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/271774/share-of-android-platforms-on-mobile-devices-with-android-os/
This graph shows the most common SDK installed on Android phones and tablets used by AppBrain SDK users as of December 8, 2015.
http://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-android-sdk-versions
So I'd suggest anything 4.0.x and up will suffice for making most of the public happy with your apps.
No, you don't need to. Almost nobody uses 1.6 now.
I am looking for Android 3.0's CCD (compatibility definition document), mainly to confirm if OpenGL ES 2.0 support is a common spec across all Honeycomb devices.
Unfortunately the official download site for CCDs seems to omit Android 3.0:
http://source.android.com/compatibility/downloads.html
Can anyone point me to an official resource that states whether OpenGL ES 2.0 support is optional or mandatory on Android 3.0?
So Google has downplayed 3.0 and has stressed the fact that they didn't want people becoming too attached to Honeycomb because it was incomplete. My advise would be to skip 3.0 and go straight to Ice Cream Sandwich. I know this isn't the best answer, but from everything I've seen I feel this would be the approved solution.
OpenGL ES 2.0 is mandatory as of 3.0 (it's required for hardware acceleration of the UI and RenderScript.)
I'm starting to broad my developer skills also to the Android development.
I installed all the tools and configurations and every thing seem great, As a default settings I install the 3.2 SDK, but there is not too much docs on that one, mode of what is out there is on the 2.x SDKs.
Is it like IOS, does android have a good backward computability? Can I stay with the 3.x and count on it (with the features that are in the 2.x SDKs) to work on 2.x phones? What are the common version in the Android devices this days? I have lots of newbie develop questions like that, as i want to start from a good starting point and there are lots of materials and tutorials over the web that are not up to date.
Also, does any one know about a good site for this kind of Q&A?
Thank you,
Erez
As of July 5th the version with the largest market share (59.4%) is 2.2 (API Level 8) as shown here
http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html so Consequently I would recommend using that as a starting point unless you are solely focusing on the new honeycomb tablets (<1% market share).
As for backward compatibility, android is completely backward compatible for the most part. Unless of course you use a new feature that is only available starting with a certain API level. Google's Android market is good about only allowing apps that will run on a certain API being visible to that phones user. This is enforced by the API level as recorded in the manifest file that is created with every Android app and set by the developer.
To help you with the API level, the SDK docs show what API a feature/object started with in the upper left hand corner. You can also view the specific changes in each platform and it's corresponding API level at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html.
As for a good website to get started I would recommend the developer site at developer.android.com and this website of course. Also the book Android Wireless Application Development by Shane Conder and Lauren Darcey (2 ed) Is very good. (I am not connected with the book just currently reading it). Make sure you get the latest edition.
Hope this helps,
George
Above is good info, but it would be advisable to develop for 2.1 and up at the moment, considering as of this answer's writing, 2.1 makes up 17.5% of the market and 2.2 makes up 59.4% of the market.
http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html
OP should also be advised that version 3.x is specifically for tablets, so that may not be the best choice for a starting developer. My advice is to go with 2.1. Most of the documentation is up to date with that, and you won't have access to things you don't need yet (fragments, tablet-specific things)
Hope this helps!
You can read about application forward and backward compatibility in the docs.
Generally apps are forwards compatible but not backward compatible - new APIs introduced in one version are not available in an older version.
This pie chart shows distribution of devices accessing the Android Market and based on this I would try to target devices using 2.1 or newer to cover most of your users.
Your decision should be based on whether you need a feature introduced in a specific version. For example, if you want to add NFC to your app, you'll need Android 2.3.3 or newer, but otherwise there's no reason to exclude older devices.
I recommend learning about Fragments and using the compatibility package to use them on targets below 3.0. This will make it easier to reuse view elements on both tablet and phone devices. Note that if you only intend to develop for phones, 2.3.4 is the latest phone version of Android at the time of writing. Later this year, 3.0 for tablets will merge with the phone version to provide a unified OS version as with iOS.
Android 3.2 is just released publicly on friday, July 15th. You can start-off with Android 2.3.3 and 3.2 installation and development.
Android applications are mostly forward compatible. (But not always)
The best place to find all your answers is developer.android.com
I'm a CS student and with my team we're going to realize an android application for our Software Engineering course. We're not Android developers and we using this opportunity to learn how to do it.
We know it's available the 3.0 version but that basically has tablets as target. Our target is smartphones, so the question is: should we stick with 2.3 or should we use 3.0 API.
I know the natural answer would be "2.3" but it's not really clear to us where "3.0" is going.
I would even go for 2.1 or 2.2 - 60% of the market uses 2.2, 20% 2.1 and 6% 2.3.
3.0 is atm only available for tablets - targeting this will limit your target market a lot, as no mobile handsets will have 3.0 any time soon.
See also this q&a: What version of Android should I develop for?
3.0 is the future, no doubt. But 3.0 is currently just available for some tablets. Almost all smartphones are currently using some 2.x version.
As you can see here, the version 2.1 and above are widely used. So I personally would target 2.1 and above.
Depends on your application's scope.
If you want to aim at as many people as possible, you should go for 2.1, or 2.2, if you don't use any specificity from the 2.3 SDK (NFC for example).
It is important to know that, because only about 10% of Android phones are running 2.3 (and even less I think). More than 70% have 2.1 or superior, so if your target is mass distribution, 2.1 would be nice. (You can develop an app under 2.3 SDK aiming at lower version as well, just add it in the manifest)
Otherwise, if your application is tablet-aimed, use 3.0. Otherwise go for 2.3.
I'm developing a simple app for Android-2.2. What are some key features that can make the app not work for 1.6?
That's a big topic. The move from 1.6 to 2.0 saw some pretty big changes and then there were some significant changes from 2.1 to 2.2. I would check out the Android 2.2 platform highlights to get an idea of what's new in 2.2 for starters. If you're building a "simple" app, I would imagine it will still work without much trouble. AFAIK, the biggest changes to the platform from a developer standpoint is the media framework additions. I would also check out the Android 2.0 platform highlights as well to get an idea of what changed from 1.6 to 2.0.