Fragmentation means nearly half of Android users won't get Facebook Home
Facebook Home will not run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread or lower, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed today in a question-and-answer session following Home's unveiling. "

There are a number of clear parallels between the MacOS vs. DOS competition of the late 80s / early 90s and the iOS vs. Android competition of today.

I think this story illustrates the clearest example. Android is more widely available -- in general --, but that doesn't mean an Android application will run on an Android device. I think this is something of a problem. iOS for whatever it's drawbacks, delivers unparalleled compatibility of Applications. Really the only question, and it diminishes with each iteration of iOS, is whether some of the specialty I/O are present on the device. The compass, the second camera (or in the case of early iPods, simply having a camera).

I wanted to love Android, I really did. But when the Hello, World application generated by Eclipse wouldn't run on their simulator, I bailed. May revisit on a day when I'm feeling more masochistic.

Labels: android, iphone