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Comment on Dealing with Android fragmentation – experiences from our startupparent

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On the other hand, iOS3 can also be safely ignored because it's a completely insignificant part of the userbase: early june studies showed an install base of 0.1% on phones (0.6% on tablets).

By comparison 2.5% of the android userbase was still on 2.2[0]. Though things look good as it's been falling fast (2.2 was over 8% in february)

[0] http://www.gsmarena.com/android_in_july_41_jb_now_more_popul...

This still doesn't change the fact that phones using 2.2 are ancient and users are probably uninterested in downloading apps, so you can safely ignore them.

It's a high percentage, but mainly because of negative selection. People who don't care about apps bought cheapest Android phones.

I wish Google disclosed more statistics than "worldwide active users" for the Android versions.

If they published additional details, for example:

* filtering by country/city,

* filtering by age or demographics,

* "total money spent on apps" instead of active users,

then developers could be more confident in supporting 4.0+ only (and convincing their clients or employers to do so).

This still doesn't change the fact that phones using 2.2 are ancient and users are probably uninterested in downloading apps

That is a completely unsupported assertion.

The article is about versions before 2.2. So, 2.2 and it's 2.5% are "supported".

Excellent point, I had misread that part. So it's only Eclair's much lower 1.2% which are ignored.

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