Snippet: What’s Wrong with Android? ☇

Fraser Spears on deploying Android in a school and one problem that’s holding it back:

The basic problem is this: Google continues to evolve the core Android OS but they can’t get that out to the majority of consumers in a timely fashion. I’m not talking here about user-facing features such as the latest design of the Calendar app or the visual tweaks to the home screen.

I’m talking about APIs. This really matters. I’ll talk later about some specific places where it matters a lot, but it matters generally because the the APIs define the power available to third-party developers.

I think this is the most honest explanation so far. Countless times I’ve seen new Android devices running 2.x and developers don’t have new APIs to get excited about because it’s a narrow group of users who can take advantage of them. Compare that to how fast everyone started including iCloud or AirPlay.