Multiple APK Support in Android Market
android-developers.blogspot.com
android-developers.blogspot.com
If you have to test on all the devices and make individual builds for different devices, development sucks. I was at Loopt when we supported J2ME, where every phone that was supposed to be the same[1] was different, and per-device builds were the only solution. It was a nightmare. In the long term, I fear Android won't be much better in that regard.
[1] Java runs the same everywhere! All the JREs are validated by Sun and pass the same tests!
http://blog.jcmultimedia.com.au/2011/03/is-it-worth-supporti...
When Loopt had this problem, we had to support all the broken devices, or the carrier wouldn't put us on deck at all. Now it's possible to just not offer (or even pull) the app on broken or non-standard devices. No bad reviews, less extra pain. Testing and feedback monitoring would still be required, but not fixing or hunting for work-arounds.
Then the burden would fall on device manufacturers (slowly -- consumer behavior would need to change). Consumers would stop buying phones that didn't have any apps.
I'm curious now to see what happens, and much less confident in my ability to predict the outcome. No matter how you look at it this is good news, and the result could be interesting and new.
No they won't, because the average consumer has NFI what version of the OS they're running.
Android is J2ME all over again. At least it's Java 5+. :)
Consumer buys that device, loads up the Market & tries looking for my app which their friend said was MUST HAVE. They don't find it on the Market so go back to the store, return the device & get another.
I think this is what kogir is talking about. Feel free to replace GPS with such things as broken OpenGL implementation, etc.
> Multiple APK support gives you a variety of ways to control app distribution. For example, you could use it to create separate APKs for phones and tablets under the same product listing. You could also use it to take advantage of new APIs or new hardware capabilities without impacting your existing customer base.
That is absolutely fantastic news.
Until Google presents reviews and ratings associated to specific versions, and now APKs, these reviews and ratings will continue to be problematic.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by this? It seems like you're saying users will be unhappy because they can't get new features without having to update, which seems odd.
There are some stunningly idiotic users out there.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/genera...
Also, the quality of the reviewers on Android Market may be naturally distributed thus 50% would have below average intelligence ;)
If anything, I believe that the biggest boon is not so much in creating device-specific builds, but being able to leave out some things that are unnecessary to keep application sizes low. If you know that a particular package is going to be used only on small, low-resolutions screens, there is no need to include the artwork for tablets.