Fragmentation has always been one of the biggest problems for Android. And adding salt to injury, Apple has been persistently writing about it as several low-cost smartphones are launched with Android 4.0 installed on it. While showcasing the new iPads in October last year, Apple had raised similar questions. But things may change if new reports are to be believed.

According to the memo leaked by Mobile Bloom, a technology website search engine giant will not approve requests for Google Mobile Services (GMS) for older Android versions nine months after the launch of new iteration of the platform.
Most of the popular companies include Google Mobile Services like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Hangouts, Plus etc. while a few manufacturers like Amazon do not use these services. The memo states that from February, 2014 Google will not approve GMS distribution on new Android phones that have older versions installed on it. Further, each platform will have ‘GMS approval window’ that will close nine months after new version has been released. In other words, Android users will have nine months to install the products on the latest platform. This means that the policy can be only beneficial to smartphone users. But this would also mean that it will be very difficult for low-end smartphones to survive in the market. Android 4.4, KitKat has been enhanced by Google to ensure that devices with 512 MB RAM run smoothly.

According to Google, Jelly Bean has the highest percentage (60.7%) of devices running on it. Gingerbread, launched in 2010 comes second at 20% while KitKat has just 1.8% users. Android 2.2 (Froyo, launched in May, 2010) is still used on 1.3% of the devices.

Looks like Google will have to work harder. What do you think? Share in comments.

Source: TOI