Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest incarnation of Android, should ease the operating system’s fragmentation across mobile handsets according to several smartphone manufacturers.
In the past, Android device makers have added their own skins and modifications to Google’s smartphone OS to iron out perceived creases and make their handsets more distinctive. This has made updates based on a core build of Android difficult but speakers on a panel at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco have agreed fragmentation is likely to lessen as time goes on.
ICS will take Android “dramatically forward,” states Kevin Packingham, senior vice president of product innovation at Samsung.”There has been some fragmentation with Android, since it’s been on such a quick development pace … now that, I think, a lot of those baseline capabilities are available, that that fragmentation will continue to diminish over time.”
“They totally renovated their user experience,” agreed Jinsung Choi, a senior vice president at LG. “Probably that will make our life a lot easier … we don’t need to make any modifications.”
Manufacturers were also united over Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility stating the move would have a positive impact on the Android ecosystem as a whole.
“By having their own development shop with Motorola, I think it really benefits all of us,” commented Samsung’s Packingham. “With a handset maker under its ownership, Google will be able to give third-party Android developers access to important hardware features as they developed for future Motorola phones and tablets.”
Well there you have it, the Android family is one big, happy, love-in. You heard it here first.
