Google vs Android Developers

Android SDK 2.1 is out together with a number of questions I'd like to ask.

The first device leveraging the platform was released a week ago. The developers were left in the dark till now. How comes?

This release is yet another manifestation of the lack of well-thought policy over there at Google on what stands behind a version number.

2.1 corresponds to API level 7 ("API level" is an internal SDK version identifier used by Android). It's interesting how 2.0 (API level 6) and 2.0.1 (API level 5) got moved to "Older Platforms" area of the Android developer site while Android 1.6 (API level 4) and 1.5 (API level 3) are still among the "current" platforms.

Is any new Android SDK version going to deprecate it's highest ranked predecessor from now on? With great ancestors 1.5 and 1.6 staying there forever?

Developers need clear version numbering that can be correlated to stability and longevity of the corresponding SDK. Preview and beta versions should be named as such. API-breaking versions should get an incremented minor version number (i.e. 2.o.1 shouldn't have existed, it should have been 2.1.0).

While software versions have been increasingly used for marketing purposes, it's important to remember that they do have a meaning in software engineering.

Here's a painfully true quote of MG Siegler of TechChrunch:

Simply put, iPhone apps, as a whole, are much, much better than Android apps. Maybe that’s because Android apps aren’t quite as mature yet. But I don’t know. The Android Market has been around for over a year now, and the fact that there still isn’t a Twitter app that’s as good as the top five iPhone Twitter apps is a bit odd to me.

Developers are the crucial part of Android ecosystem. Google has some thinking to do. Maybe eventually the horse will be put in front of the cart.