Sense UI & further fragmentation

[opuntia2]

Just got the HTC Incredible for my wife the other day and it is a really slick phone. But after using the Sense UI the other day this got me thinking about how this is just causing further fragmentation in the android market. I'm looking at the app/developer viewpoint. Since the native Android calendar & contacts apps are MIA, am I right in assuming that apps that work with the native calendar and contacts won't work with Sense. For example, the popular Touchdown app is having issue integrating with the Incredible HTC Incredible Users, please read - NitroDesk TouchDown | Google Groups and the developer is having to deal with these issues on an individual basis.


anyway, food for thought.

 

[Bill]

Just got the HTC Incredible for my wife the other day and it is a really slick phone. But after using the Sense UI the other day this got me thinking about how this is just causing further fragmentation in the android market. I'm looking at the app/developer viewpoint. Since the native Android calendar & contacts apps are MIA, am I right in assuming that apps that work with the native calendar and contacts won't work with Sense. For example, the popular Touchdown app is having issue integrating with the Incredible HTC Incredible Users, please read - NitroDesk TouchDown | Google Groups and the developer is having to deal with these issues on an individual basis.


anyway, food for thought.

Android was developed with this in mind. Just like you can set a default browser or email client you can do the same on android. But not only that Google has made it so not only can you have set default apps but developers can make there apps able to share and talk to each other. Example is how apps take advantage of the bar code scanner. One developer could write an app that just scans bar codes bt nothing else and another developer could write an app that calls this bar code scanner and then actually do something useful with the scan like look up a book or DVD.


Bill

 

[opuntia2]

Android was developed with this in mind. Just like you can set a default browser or email client you can do the same on android. But not only that Google has made it so not only can you have set default apps but developers can make there apps able to share and talk to each other. Example is how apps take advantage of the bar code scanner. One developer could write an app that just scans bar codes bt nothing else and another developer could write an app that calls this bar code scanner and then actually do something useful with the scan like look up a book or DVD.


Bill

This is a great feature, but at the same time when the sense UI completely takes over the calendar (for example), apps like calwidget won't work with it because it's not the main google calendar. Instead, the developer has to customize the app to work with each specific phone and their calednar, using the calwidget example again, the developer had to add support for the MOTO Droid Corporate Calendar...that would be quite annoying to me if I was a developer.

 

[Bill]

This is a great feature, but at the same time when the sense UI completely takes over the calendar (for example), apps like calwidget won't work with it because it's not the main google calendar. Instead, the developer has to customize the app to work with each specific phone and their calednar, using the calwidget example again, the developer had to add support for the MOTO Droid Corporate Calendar...that would be quite annoying to me if I was a developer.

I can not comment on the calwidget as I have no experience with it. I am not sure I am following youe MOTO Droid example here since that phone has no moto blur or sense ui on top so I am not sure how that would cause any fragmentation.

You also need to look at what the alternative is. Android actually cause less fragmentation by bringin many phone manufacturers together. Sure it is not the same as one platform but if Android was not inplace each of these manufactures would have there own OS. Could you imagine MotoOS, NokiaOS, SamsungOS, SonyErricsonOS, HTCOS, etc.... I think that would be more difficult on the developer than just tweaking some code to accommodate a certain hand set.

Bill

 

[rushmore]

Droid will get 2.2 and Flash 10.1 before Inc, since no Sense. Expect a gap of time. My guess is two months between the Sense and the Senseless.

Listen to me now and believe me later.

 

[CRPercodani]

When you look at the bigger picture like Bill is saying then yes Android has a huge advantage over multiple proprietary OS' but if your looking with the so-called box of Android only then fragmentation is somewhat of a problem. When you want something like Sense you have to understand your trading some standard operation for HTC specific apps. This isn't a bad thing but it can become complicated when situations like this arise.

 

[CRPercodani]

Droid will get 2.2 and Flash 10.1 before Inc, since no Sense. Expect a gap of time. My guess is two months between the Sense and the Senseless.

Listen to me now and believe me later.

The only chance of hope here is that the EVO is supposed to come with 2.2 and it runs Sense. If that is true then it won't take much for them to push the update to the Inc, however if you look at how long it took them to update Sense onto 2.1 then things get a little hairy.