I’m still a bit confused. Steve Jobs at Apple’s Q4 earnings report made a comment about Android fragmentation and backed it up saying that Rovio, makers of Angry Bird, had a hard time porting the game to Android because of the fragmentation problem.
No we didn’t replied Rovio.
Electronista carries an interview of sorts with Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio in which Vesterbacka says:
Vesterbacka praised Apple’s App Store as a platform that will continue to dominate the industry: “Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten so many things right. And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time.”
When Angry Birds was being developed for Android, the company had to face what Vesterbacka calls “the fragmentation of the ecosystem.” When asked specifically about Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ criticisms of Android, he largely agreed: “So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google-centric ecosystem. And paid content just doesn’t work on Android.”
“Steve is absolutely right when he says that there are more challenges for developers when working with Android,” Vesterbacka continued. “but that’s fine. Developers will figure out how to work any given ecosystem — as long as it doesn’t cause physical pain, it’s ok. Nobody else will be able to build what Apple has built, there just isn’t that kind of market power out there.”
Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/28/discusses.android.changes.has.hopes.for.nokia/#ixzz19VOuz02z
Which I guess backs up what Steve did say.
The article goes on to say:
While maintaining that “device fragmentation” wasn’t really an issue, the company eventually decided to make several changes to accommodate the Android market. The initial change was to make the game available only on certain models that could handle what Rovio felt were the minimum requirements of the game as it was, leaving out some 30 Android phones including some brand-new models at the time. Later, the company released simplified versions that could run on the models originally left out.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/28/discusses.android.changes.has.hopes.for.nokia/#ixzz19VPEKG7I
Ahhh, well, that clears that up.
