Will the introduction of new Android devices fragment the Android Market? It’s possible, but not probable.
As companies like INQ hinted at their own take on the Android experience and T-Mobile’s Cole Brodman acknowledged potential shortcomings if fragmentation took hold, the most likely form of fragmentation was visual: how the platform appeared across different handsets, rather than a breakdown in app compatibility.
One concrete concern at the time was screen and input differences. With the HTC Tattoo gearing up for release, developers would need to consider how their apps performed on both capacitive and resistive touchscreens. The T-Mobile G1 and Motorola Cliq both had full QWERTY keyboards, while other devices relied on soft keyboards or trackballs. Android had already shown it could handle those variations reasonably well.
The deeper question was whether app differentiation would creep in at the device level. Could the Android Market end up with versions of apps labeled specifically for the Cliq or the Tattoo? Almost certainly not in any formal sense. That kind of fragmentation would be too confusing for the average buyer and contrary to what Google was building toward.
So will new devices fragment Android Market? Differentiation by hardware capability, maybe. True fragmentation, no.
