Article: Fragmentation on Mobile Devices

Apple has been keeping fragmentation away from the iOS platform all these years, by catering to GSM carriers and hardware device that had a fixed form factor, hardware specification. This may be in for a small change now

Every new generation of iPhone was launched with a new version of the iOS platform and typically left the older generation phone behind. For instance the latest version of iOS has many features, which is not rolled out uniformly across 3G, 3GS and 4G devices. Older the generation of iPhone the latest firmware has little or no relevance and Apple has tried to move the consumers on the latest version of the platform always. This means the fragmentation if any on iOS devices is only because of the different versions of the iOS that may be on the devices.


Android on the other hand has been criticized heavily for its fragmentation. We have different versions of Android on different form factors and on completely different hardware specification. This means that the Software designed for Android are not guaranteed to work on all devices. Google has tried releasing some reference hardware with each version of Android like Nexus One and Nexus S, but all manufacturers do not match the reference hardware, so have to go through a curated App Store process to make Apps that work on specific device.


The fragmentation of Android also makes it available in number of devices, across different carriers and hence has a wider reach across consumers. The fragmentation issue on mobile platform is in a way very similar to the fragmentation that was seen in the Desktop environment. Windows is similar to Android with the mass reach and Mac is similar to the iOS platform. While Windows was available on number of devices from sub-par machines to high end systems, Mac was always available in standard hardware with very limited customization from Apple alone. 


Windows also had number of cycles like 95, 98, 98 SP2, ME, XP SP3, Vista and now Windows 7. These cycles were atleast few years apart and had gradual adoption from vendors and consumers. We can see some systems running XP, Vista or even 98 version. In the mobile platform, the cycle time from Google for Android is few months, so by the time the vendors adopt to a specific version the next version is already released or discussed. This means a device that is launched today may already be outdated in terms of the Software version and more importantly may not get the updates as they are controlled by carriers and vendors.


Windows also provided the consumers of any device to run the updates to get the latest patches automatically, instead of waiting for carriers or vendors to release them. In some cases, the vendors route the patches, but they did not control the user experience to get the updates and this is where Google has a completely different strategy. The ability to get updates for Android is affected by the vendor who makes the device and further by the carrier who subsidizes the device. It will definitely help if Google can work on getting the updates directly available to users, instead of having it to root or jailbreak the devices.

Finally with the introduction of iPhone in Verizon, Apple has soem change in hardware specification across its devices. The way to access the network in GSM and CDMA phones are different because of the difference in underlying chip and looks like some Softwares that communicate directly with this hardware are not working as-is. The software providers need to have Verizon specific (CDMA) version of the Software, in addition to the current version, which is GSM compatible. This finally gets iOS also on the fragmentation vehicle, though not on the same level.

If I can get the upgrades seamlessly or with minimum delays, then I personally do not think fragmentation is a big problem. This is also the means in which different vendors are able to differentiate their devices, instead of churning out similar looking devices everywhere. Fragmentation is bound to happen, if the intent is to solve varying user needs and satisfy completely different user experiences. Fragmentation is part of any Software development and let us face it and try to find a way out of it, which is best for consumers.

Author: Vinod