I'm one of those 70%ers who can't get the new app. I'm "patiently" waiting for Motorola to pull its thumb from its arse and rollout 2.1 for the CLIQ.

Lesson learned: if i EVER buy another Android phone, it won't be a custom mod. It will just run Android.

Sigh.

Unless the Froyo upgrade applies to phones even on 1.5, yes, this was pretty silly of them. I'm sticking with Seesmic; seems better, regardless

There's nothing wrong with looking forward, especially regarding major revisions. It could have supported 2.0 though, but most of those clients can be upgraded to 2.1 by now.

This is why I have an iPhone. Might not get all the features of an app on the 1G iPhone but the app will still install and work. And an app like the Twitter App will work for sure.

Google should of learned from MS. Even though there is Windows 2000 – Windows 7 out there most Applications will work on all those versions from 2000 to 7. Crap I can still run Dos apps on Windows 7.

Apple only supports 2 versions back of Mac OS but I am using a first gen Intel IMac and I am running Snow Leopard so I am good cause their OS supports hardware 4 or 5 gens back.

Open is cool but they ether need something like LSB (Linux Standard Base) or like MS is doing and get more control over the OS.

I think this will work itself out.

Consumers will stop spending money on phones that aren't running the latest and greatest, and phone manufacturers will wither adapt or go back to WinMo or whatever.

This is shit, thanks HTC and Sprint, Google needs to do something about this.

It's not like they're missing anything. That app sucks.

windows phone is the future noone cares about android

Do you know how many apps are not available to IPhone users because of Apple's restrictions?

This is not Google's problem, its the phone makers who have to be blamed. Google has to warn phone makers about this, or else both will be effected.

http://www.dumblittleblogger.com/

That is wishful thinking. Basically What Android is facing is what Symbian faced for all these years – when you try to have a wide variety of devices adopting a single OS there is bound to be fragmentation. In case of Symbian, Nokia is trying to fix it, but the question is can Google?

It is actually Google's problem – they make the OS.

They need to learn from Nokia's experience and not repeat the same mistakes coz if they do, Android will be relegated to the same spot as the old WinMo.

Do tell…

Though this is in some ways a platform problem, it was a poor business decision by Twitter. What is in their app that couldn't have been built to be compatible with the earlier versions?

I'm sure android has at least moderate backward compatibility, but I've never used it, so I can't say for sure.

As to all those who would say 'this is why Apple is better', I can't download any apps on my ipod touch because apparently I need to upgrade to OS3. When I try to upgrade, itunes tells me I can't. A friend with an iPhone has the same issue.

As a developer, I completely understand wanting to go with the most up to date platform, and I'm sure there are apps that can truly only run on 2.+ on android, but I just don't see where Twitter falls into that camp. I doubt they have much by the way of animations, gps is available to them, you're sending and receiving 140 character messages. What am I missing?

Google develops the OS …

Phone Makers create custom builds of the same OS and release phones using them.

Google improves the OS but phone makers won´t create new custom builds since they are spending time thinking how they can convince you to buy a new phone running one of their old custom builds ….

How can google be blamed for this? Their worst mistake was to give Android´s rights to the open alliance … born to die like symbian …

You dont get it. in an exponential growth curve, the 2.1+ users will outnumber the rest very soon, like say 3 months.

why do you NEED android

stupid google fanboys… android sucks with no apps

I think the problem is that there are just too many cooks in the tech kitchen for it all to run as smoothly as consumers would like.

There are lots of Twitter clients that will work on the other versions of Android. What are people carping about?

How is it different than Windows on a PC? Some may run XP, others Vista, and the latest use Windows 7. If your computer does not run the latest then it may be time to upgrade. No one blames Microsoft when their latest desktop application does not support Windows 2000.

You need to update your iPod touch to OS 3? I am not understanding why you can not do that. All versions of the iPhone and IPod touch can run all versions of the OS up to OS 4 which is not out yet but I am running the beta on my 3GS and my 1st Gen iPhone and iPod touch for development. Any App that can run in OS 3 can run on any iProduct including the iPad and OS 3 can run on all iProducts ( But the iMac of course! Lol)

Um yeah Windows 2000 is over 11 years old. It's not like in this case where the OS is like 3 and there are 5 versions out there. Almost anything that can run on Windows 7 can run in XP. And it's 10 years old. I mean something as simple as a twitter all should not have issues.

This is why, Android kills me. I think it is a great OS, and has great potential. Until I am able to load "any" of the 50,000 app's that are on the store on "any" Android device, I will not purchase and Android Phone. By the looks of it, and the way it is going Android will never achieve this. It is too, open.

It is really sad that 70% of Android users can not use this App. It is also sad that Android is so open, that developers have to choose which android device to build for.

Just Sad

There is so much confusion that people who are not aware to these developments will be lost this word of technology

That's where Android 2.2 comes in.

And this is the problem with the "open & free" method. Sound good in theory, until you realize there's simply too many cooks in the kitchen, too many skins, too many UIs & too many different phone makers running too many different versions of the same core OS. Just ask Linux desktop or Windows Mobile how that worked out for them.

Seriously, an OS this new shouldn't be as frangmented as Android has become. Google needs to fix this & soon or else consumers are gonna get frustrated that their 3 month old phone can't run any of the news apps.

My suggestion is that Google handle the update process for all Android based phones from here on out.

At least every app that is on the Apple App Store can run on Any Iphone OS. If you want to run the Apps that Apple does not allow on the App Store, just Jail Break the Iphone, then you can run every iphone App made.

That is the point, Google has 50,000 apps and there are certain app's that can not run on "any" Android phone! The problem here is that Google does not restrict any app, but the Developers are restricting apps since they are deciding which devices to build their app for. So you have a bigger problem here then what people think Apple does.

If this keeps up you will have Chaos in the Android App Market, and the poor end user has to suffer since the App "is" available, but they can not run it. This is torture to the Android user. At least with Apple you get No!, with Android you get Yes! but it depends!

Android is going to be the future, unfortunately for Google too many ppl have adopted it too soon and Google doesnt have the expertise to hit the right spots.. its juggling too many things at a time and fight too many big wars…

Phone, apps , email , search, maps… its ridiculous..they are becoming an AOL

http://www.realestatekhoj.wordpress.com

Gosh, why don't all those people running Android 1.6 and earlier upgrade to 2.1? My original iPhone from 2007 is running iPhone OS 3.1.3 and I look forward to running 4.0 in just a few weeks. I thought Android users were supposed to be geeks, but I guess it's too difficult for them to hook up with USB and do a simple software upgrade.

You can Download the App right here, in one easy step.

http://www.worldshotcake.com/google/download-twit...

You can also view and subscribe to my Full RSS feed to enjoy latest tech updates on your desktop.

btw, this is not spam, take care.

Actually your original iPhone won't be able to run iPhone OS 4.

thanks to Cyanogen that number can go up now :)

and coming from Twidroid and having installed the official Twitter client (after installing Cyanogen's latest 2.1 release) I can say that the app is really sweet.

Welcome to the world of software updates and innovation, phone makers should make updates available.

@ev @biz @dickc

Make Twittter App work on Android – like you said!

The other Android Apps are rubbish tweets.

The Twitter app has account sync. That right there its something that is only in Android 2.0 and up. Why they restricted it to 2.1 though…I have no idea.

Oh boy, can't they just make it atleast 50? :p

This is exactly why Apple doesn't want to give out their control over the iPhone and iPhone OS.

This is a huge problem for Google.

Do you honestly believe consumers will look for latest Android versions and whatnot when buying a phone? 10% tech savvy maybe, but most of regular consumers will just buy a phone that has "a big touch screen, is colourful and looking nice.. and can make calls". And then they will be surprised they can't install new, fresh and cool applications. And who will they blame? Google obviously as they will see a big Google logo all over their software and will be aware that it's Google that is responsible for software.

And even if they buy a phone with the latest Android who is gonna be sure that they will be able to update in few months time? Why those users with 1.6 etc can't update now?

Phone OS is much different to desktop OS. You get major updates much more often than win xp -> vista -> 7. Nobody expects consumers to buy a new phone every year, do they? Techcrunch readers maybe, but majority not really.

This is why it's a huge problem for Google. Their reputation and their brand will suffer.

And IMHO this is also a problem of so called "open" systems. Variety of hardware + variety of software = more ways to screw up. And this corelates nicely to the post that was here a week or so ago – "I hate computers".

That is the best analogy I've been given to read about Android fragmentation problem.

lol…

I would say more, but…

lol…

Even more crappier aspect is that I bought my G1 only last August. I mean in hardly 10 months, it's seems it's from stone age.

This app runs fine on Android 2.0.1 here in the UK. I downloaded it from the Market on my Motorola Milestone. So, the article title should really be:

30% Of Android Phones Can Use The Official Twitter Client

This is why I am not too excited about these Android tablets and such in the works. Do you think the manufacturers are going to still support these devices after a year or so with Android upgrades? Probably not. The companies won't want to invest in the testing resources to support an old $300-$400 device and they'll just want you to buy a new device. And you'll be stuck with an obsolete device that can't run any on the new apps.

I am experiencing this now. I am one of the idiots who bought the Acer Aspire One Android netbooks thinking that I'd be able to run all the new Android apps that would be developed in the coming years. But this netbook has been stuck at a pre-Android 1.5 OS with no update ever released and hardly anything runs on the device.

Actually the vast majority of consumers don't know the difference. A few weeks ago, I walked into a T-Mobile store, to test out my website on multiple handsets. The handset OS's ranged from 1.5 to 2.1.

Consumers don't know the difference, and the sales staff don't know the difference either.

The majority of consumers I observed still considered the SmartPhone, simply a phone, with some cool new stuff.

Fragmentation in this market is dangerous. And for the moment, there's no solution on the horizon.

bad decision from the company

i think very bad percentage , i wanna ask if any one have tried to install Android on the iPhone, cause i wanna install the new official twitter app, i found this link , but is it right or fake, thanks

http://mobile.mob2all.com/2010/04/how-to-install-...

Apparently you've not been paying attention… iPhone OS 4.0 is going to create a lot of fragmentation.

"windows phone is the future noone cares about android" ??? LOLOLOLOL You just stay in your tiny little bubble Microsoft….

It wouldn't have been as good if they had built it for, say, 1.6. One awesome features is the "QuickContact" bubbles. To my knowledge, this is the first 3rd party app to include those. If you use Android 2.1 you know how awesome it is. I'm thrilled that Twitter decided to go this route. The app is beautiful, and damn functional for 1.0.

This is twitters fail, period. I don't see any reason that this could not work on even 1.5. they aren't using advanced graphics or really doing anything special. Enlighten me if I am wrong.

The 1st Gen Iphone / Ipod gets the short end of the stick, but these are 3 year old devices. This is an industry standard to phase out HW after 3 years. But that does not stop the only 3% of 1st Gen Iphone / Ipod uses from having access to 200,000 apps.

It is the OS 4.0 that they do not have access too. the rest of the New Iphone devices can all upgrade to OS 4.0, still having access to all 200,000 applications. I fully understand that 2nd Gen Iphone/Ipod's do not get Multi-Tasking, but they still have access to all 200,000 applications. it is Iphone 3G, GS and 3rd Gen Ipod's that get all the features of the Iphone OS 4.0 and still access to all 200,000 applications.

Google is truly fragmented, since they have no control over the hardware, thus have no clue what a manufacture, or developer is going to do. Apple is calculated when they Fragment and they make every customer aware of what to expect on the devices they own. That is the point…. The business model that Android has is to go Critical Mass, and let you the consumer deal with the problems. Apple's Business Model is for the Long haul, and they know exactly what they are going to be doing and what their customer are to expect 2 years from now. Google has no clue what is going to take place on the Android platform 2 years from now, or what issues they are going to face, and they do not care since you the consumer will have to deal with it.

Hans you are correct. However the 1st Gen Iphone will still have access to all of the Applications on the App Store, unlike Android. Like I said earlier, a 1st Gen iphone is 3 years old, and it is an industry standard to fragment, retire hardware after 3 years. If I purchase an Android, the hardware will be old in 3 months, and not have the ability to run some apps, or even upgrade possibly.

Personally, I would feel crippled with an Android Phone.

Muneeb, you hit the nail on the head and have made the biggest point. You the customer is getting the short end of the stick fast. 1st Gen Iphone users, have enjoyed continued piece of mind for 3 years. Now the 1st Gen iphone users need to upgrade, and after 3 years of continued use you would be satisfied to upgrade.

Go get an Iphone you will not be disappointed.

cyanogenmod.com is your answer

And your Droid can't install more than 512MB of apps. That's INCREDIBLE!

Let's see how many android device that's out there and how many are running 2.1

AT&T:

Motorola Backflip (1.5)

Sprint:

HTC Hero (1.5)

Samsung Moment (1.5)

T-Mobile:

G1 (1.6)

MyTouch (1.6)

Motorola Cliq (1.5)

Samsung Behold II (1.5)

Verizon:

HTC Droid Incredible (2.1)

Motorola Droid (2.1)

Motorola Devour (1.6)

HTC Droid Eris (1.5)

AT&T/TMobile:

Nexus One (2.1)

As you can see, only three devices currently runs 2.1. Hopefully more can upgrade to 2.1 some time in May.

I am fighting Apple's silly company review process, and I haven't even submitted my app yet!

Hardly the same thing. Phasing out support for old hardware is a different matter all together.

You may not blame them, but it is their problem, as they have the most at risk with this fragmentation impacting Android's adoption.

how is that a different matter. Please expand on the fragmentation deltas between google and apple for this new OS.

512 mb of executables. I have 300 apps on my mytouch.

Microsoft (Not the company. I'm talking about this guy on here), you're plain ignorant. Enough said.

Its not the future thats a joke, and you're a spamming piece of shit. diaf

LOL Sanjay,

They just require proof of formation. What exactly are you fighting? Is your company formed in some crappy country?

I can't believe 50k apps — means 'no' now.

For those android users who cant use the official twitter client — well? they can always go for the alternative app, else, visit the main twitter page.

Its not really that of a 'problem'. Hopefully, it'll be fixed once froyo arrives.

Not Motorola's fault – it's Google's… Too many releases and major platform jumps in just 1 year or so. We users basically bug-tested the beta cycles for the ramp-up of the Android platform ..as we do for everything G-related with their sloppy web code just ship-it mentality.

And Google does not tell OEM's like Motorola what is coming in future SW releases, hard to believe but it's true. There is only the barest roadmap given.

So Motorola, HTC, etc. are all hung out to dry when they have shipped a tuned device, say CLIQ for 1.5, then Google changes a bunch of shit later in the platform that the OEM hadn't been warned about …and we customers are begging for a free update.

Apple may f**k a few choice partners, but Google f***ks ALL their partners both by keeping Android roadmap a secret and fitting only Rubin's predilections …and then by relasing their own branded devices to compete with their partners. This is called stabbing them in the back while f**king them. Nice.

Android is way more fragmented then Apple. Basically, Android allows for a manufacture HTC, to use their own Sense UI, which is different then the Motorola Blur UI, which again is different then what you get from a Nexus, and the first G1 that came out about 1 year ago, looks Ancient!!!. And I have not even talked about the differences on the hardware. I personally have looked at all Multiple Droid's and sure it is an Android OS at the Core, but the UI is different and unique on each, and the learning curve for an "Non Geek" consumer will be frustrated moving from one Droid phone to the next.

This Model may have worked for the Desktop PC, but is not going to work in a mobile environment for the long run. This is why Apple controls HW/SW and Applications… and if you have kept up, Microsoft with Win Mobile 7, is now following the Apple Model with a little less constraints on developers, software etc…..but even Microsoft sees that if they do not put controls in place with the New "Mobile" computing platform eco system, they will not be a player in the long run.

Don't own an iPhone, but I was surprised to see Apple still support a phone released 3 years ago. 3+ years of support is pretty damn good for a phone in my book. Never seen that before. Many of these phones running 1.5/1.6 came out less than a year ago! They even still have some devices currently shipping with 1.5 when I went phone shopping the other week. At the very least, Apple has all the current iDevices it sells to have the most up-to-date OS (or an easy upgrade to it). I'm still undecided on what phone to get and may just wait till Android 2.2 and the next iPhone are released before I shackle myself to a 2 year contract.

Good work to see this on the differences of OS' versions on each Android Phone.

Do not get me wrong, I really think that the Android OS is a great OS, I just wish that Google, put some more controls around it. You are going to see that for years to come, it will be Apple and Google as the top in the Mobile OS world. As far as I am concerned, it is over for Blackberry, and Microsoft has a long way to go to fight back. The interesting part is what is HP going to do with Palm? I strongly believe that HP is going to start to roll out lots of devices with the WebOS, from phones, to Thin Clients, to in Car Systems on and on an on.

You should look into the cyanogen mod for your g1. The latest one updates the G1 and Mytouch 3g to 2.1

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/cyanogen-5-0-7...

Great comment, I totally agree.

You're waiting for Motola to update? Heh… buddy… that's not how Verizon/Moto operate. They'll make you buy a new phone!

Tried it & went back to Seesmic. Seesmic remembers where I am allowing me to scroll (up) through new tweets in time-order. Twitter app jumps to the newest tweet leaving me without a last-seen pointer.

All the Android fanboys who buy Android phones sooner or latter realise they are beta testers. Most fanboys don't mind that but consumers won't put up with that kind of mess.

Build a matrix for Android: Software version/hardware manufacture/hardware model/carrier and you quickly see why Android will continue to be fragmented mess.

Most Android fanboys like to enjoy fiddling with their phones but the vast majority of consumers don't want to waste time fiddling with their phones, they want to get on with enjoying their lives.

Many Android fanboys appear to believe that software should be open and free, and good for them but again consumers aren't really that concerned with this ideology. I like many others, actually believe that developers should be paid for their software and frankly given the choice to pay a few dollars for an app use, versus, a free adware app I am happy to pay.

Well that something good I would love to write about it inhttp://www.articleuary.com free article directory and content for your site

[...] [/source] [picture credit] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Android’s worse problem is itself", url: "http://www.soyacincau.com/2010/05/02/androids-worse-problem-is-itself/" }); Android, Mobile OS Android, android twitter app, google, Mobile OS [...]

"Android is going to be the future,…"

Yeah probably, the question though is: Which version of Android is going to be the future?

What a Joke.

Yeah, because Win Phone 7 is going to introduce so many revolutionary features to the smartphone world, like, urm… yeah… ah, yes! office support… oh no, Apple had that 3 years ago… oh well i'm sure Win Mobile will do something… anything really…

But thats the problem!!

Do you really think most (90% or more) of the general users know about cyanogen for G1 and my touch?

This is the exact reason why lynx never took off for the common home pc user. You cant expect nontechnical people to make technical decisions. How many people are going to think about…….

1. Hardware profile

2. Os version (currently and future)

3. Hardware Manufactures UI on top of OS (which also has implications to possible updates)

4. Apps that can and cant run (currently and future)

5. Hardware/Software support and life span of a device

Most people have NO IDEA what any of this means, alot of people i know think Android is a phone and have no idea its an OS.

As i may not like Apples business decisions, they got alot of this right for the everyday user (again 90% or more of general users). Us geeks can know better and can make a educated decision. But i still think

Android = made for geeks and developers

Apple = everyday user

Hopefully 2.2 will cover some bases, but it will not help 70% of its CURRENT user base. Originally Android was supposed to fix alot of this for us, but in turn it just amplified a number of current problems. its going to get harder and harder to put the ketchup back in the bottle. hopefully android 3.0(?) will make some drastic changes, because thats the only thing we can hope for. Or in 3 years android will be so fractured you wont even know android runs on your phone. Because once the novelty of android runs out, how els do manufactures differentiate there hardware?

A general question about the future of Android.

In 5 years what will be Androids placement be among all the other OS's? How does Andriod fit in?

Will it be the symbian of early 2000's? the generic standard OS? I mean back then you had Blackberry, Win-mobile, Palm and symbian. Symbian being the generic OS

Now its Apple, Microsoft 7 (soon), Palm/HP and Android (and soon Nokia/Symbian). Once the novelty runs off from Android I think it will be delegated to the back seat just as symbian was.

Apple, Microsoft and Palm/HP will be able to differentiate themselves with there own ecosystems=(OS/Hardware/Services/Apps/Support)

Android will always be the fragmented, No way around that. just the same as it is today with lynx desktop OS, but worse because now you have to go between a small handful of device manufactures that need to differentiate their own devices between the rest. Device fragmentation will get better when the OS matures, but will never truly go away.

How does google plan to fight this possible outcome? It seems the Nexus One was a brief moment of reality, but i dont understand why take a shot across the bow and then not go all in? It seems they dangled their feet in the water and got scared and pulled out as quick as they got in.

If goggles only form of income from Android is Ads, how will it unsure that steady stream of income will still come in down the road.

1. Will goggle get Android up to speed and hand it off as an Open source project with or without licensing…… I dont think you got much money in that, and it would be a waste of money now for nothing down the road.

2. Start really making their own hardware?

3. Buy a hardware company (HTC)

If you only make money from Ads, your fate is left in the hands of 3rd Party Hardware manufactures. when the dust settles from the "smartphone explosion" how are they going to make money to continue Androids development? Its not as if google is spending Millions and Millions of dollars to promote competition and keep other manufactures honest. Google didn't light the fuze on THIS generation of smartphone, Apple did, why not get in bed with Microsoft/Palm/Apple for Ad placement?

[...] Google I/O 大会上 Android 版本“分裂”情况会有所转机。 Via TechCrunch [...]

[...] In our post, we mentioned that this was only going to be available for Android 2.1…Source:http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/30/only-27-3-of-android-phones-can-use-the-official-twitter-client/ Permalink Sunday May 2nd [...]

I'm afraid that if you can't see the difference between Apple ending support for a phone that they stopped selling 2 years ago and Googles problem with 1.x Android phones that are still currently sold today then I don't think anything I say will help you.

[...] Via TechCrunch [...]

[...] come out for Android 2.1, and I’m sure all Android fans are excited. Not really, since only 27.3% of them can actually use it. I have to admit though, it does have a rather nice UI (User Interface). See Below for pictures. [...]

[...] операционная система Android 2.1. По информации Thechrunch, только 27,3% Android-смартфонов оснащены версией [...]

[...] Visto en TechCrunch [...]

[...] Visto en TechCrunch [...]

[...] the Twitter App is only for Android 2.x devices like the Droid line and Nexus One, only about a quarter of Android users can use the application.  That is, unless they hack 2.1 onto their older [...]

[...] Visto en TechCrunch [...]

[...] abuzz this week by releasing its promised official Android app. And as long as you were one of the 27.3% of users that could use it, what you got was, in my opinion, one of the best-looking and coolest Android apps I’ve seen [...]

[...] Visto en TechCrunch [...]

This is twitters fail, period. I don't see any reason that this could not work on even 1.5. they aren't using advanced graphics or really doing anything special. Enlighten me if I am wrong.