Android device fragmentation makes developing and testing more challenging, but it also apparently effects how visually appealing Android apps are. According to “prevailing conventional wisdom” among developers, it is easier to make a “highly polished, elegant-looking app” for iOS – and the major reason is simply Android fragmentation. Wired talked to UI/UX designers and app developers from Hipmunk and Karma to find out why iOS apps generally look better than their Android counterparts. From Wired:

When coding for iOS, developers deal with a very limited number of screen resolutions and hardware profiles. But when coding for Android, developers have to resolve a virtually limitless set of device parameters.

“Android devices come in different shapes and sizes, different screen resolutions, different device speeds — and that’s actually a huge hurdle,” Karma app co-founder Lee Linden told Wired. “You need to be testing out something like 20 different phones with different resolutions and different processors, and that definitely makes development slower.”

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Those using Ice Cream Sandwich – Android’s latest mobile OS – all seem to love it. So why is it only available on roughly 7% of devices? This video, courtesy of Mashable, helps explain why:

There are “best app” lists for everything – best app of the year, best summer apps, best travel apps, best [fill in the blank] apps. And there’s usually more than one list for each “best of” category. It’s hard to keep track of them all.

But when I come across a “best of all time” type of list (like Apple’s Best of the Best) it’s such a bold statement that it’s hard to not share. And recently Rick Broida of CNET came out with “The five handiest smartphone apps ever.” Most useful apps EVER? How could I not get your opinions! Here’s what Rick thinks are the ultimate must-haves:

Bump (Android & iOS)
Last month, the app got an upgrade that makes it crazy-handy: you can now use Bump to quickly and easily transfer photos to your PC.

Cozi (Android & iOS)
Honestly, I don’t know how my family ever got along without it. The app provides a shared calendar that’s color-coded for each member of your family. Thus, you can quickly see who’s going where, and when.

eWallet (Android & iOS)
It’s no longer possible to go through life without a password manager. There’s so much private data to manage: bank accounts, e-mail passwords, frequent-flyer numbers, shopping site info, serial numbers — the list goes on and on.

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We talk about the testing matrix, well, all the time. It can seem intimidating. And, in fact, that was the complaint from some readers regarding a recent TechCrunch article detailing how a few developers test their Android apps.

Striving to uphold journalistic integrity and remain unbiased, TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler took the complaints to heart and reached out to more developers to get a fuller picture of Android QA practices. Here’s a snapshot of how four developers with successful apps do their testing (from TechCrunch):

Red Robot Labs (Veteran founding team from EA, Playdom and Crowdstar. More than 3.5 million downloads. They currently have the #27 top-grossing game in the Google Play store.)

Red Robot uses about 12 devices in-house and has a quality assurance team of two people. They then use a U.K.-based company called Testology to get further coverage with 35 handsets.

Pocket Gems (More than 70 million downloads. Newer to Android, but they had two of the top 10 grossing iOS games for all of last year according to Apple’s iTunes Rewind. #35 top-grossing game in Google Play.)

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Testers, are you excited for Android 5, aka Jelly Bean, that is rumored to be hitting devices this fall? Well, don’t hold your breath, because developers aren’t. According to an article in PCWorld (via InfoWorld), developers are excited about Jelly Bean, but they’re not holding off production or deferring schedules for the new OS version. From PCWorld:

Android developers at this week’s AnDevCon developer conference were too busy dealing with current releases like Android 4 “Ice Cream Sandwich” to stall their development efforts for yet another OS upgrade. “You have to deal with what’s available now,” said Chris Morris, a developer for the Weather Channel.

“Jelly Bean” does sound interesting, said Michael Luongo, a developer specializing in media-sharing application at TechSmith. He’s been building “Ice Cream Sandwich” applications for about six months. “Everybody I think wants to monetize [their application] now,” so news of a possible new Android version isn’t derailing current efforts.

Developers David Mathisen, of Allegiance Software, and Teresa Jiminez Arreola, of France Telecom R&D, had similar sentiments. Neither wants to hold off and wait for Android’s next upgrade. “I want to make sure that everybody can use our app that has an Android phone,” Mathisen said.

Read the full article at PCWorld >>>

Jelly Bean is rumored to include Chrome browser integration, better enterprise security and better power management. While those features will undoubtedly excited developers when Android 5 is released, they aren’t at the top of mind for the time being. So you’re just going to have to keep snacking on Ice Cream Sandwish, Gingerbread and Honeycomb for a bit longer testers.

You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well in the case of Android fragmentation – a subject discussed at great length here and on the uTest blog – a picture is worth a few thousand devices.

The image you’re seeing is a data chart of thousands of separate device models encountered by the dev team at OpenSignalMaps over the course of a six month period. It may not be a flashy infographic, but it’s one of the best visuals I’ve seen to convey the challenge of Android hardware fragmentation. Here with more details on the chart (and on Android fragmentation in general) is arstechnica:

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On Monday we posted about CNET’s Friday Poll that asked readers who they thought was the top mobile manufacturer. Samsung came out on top of that informal survey … and according at a slightly more official survey conducted by Sophos the preference for an Android device wasn’t a fluke.

Sophos’ survey polled 500 people last year and focused on smartphones in the workplace. Here’s what they asked:

• What phone OS does your company supply you with?
• What phone OS do you WISH your company supplied you with?
• Would you put up with more security on your personal smartphone if you could access work data?

The responses show that Blackberry is still on top when it comes to work issued phones, being in the hands of 37% of the respondents. 22% said they use work supplied iPhones and 20% are using Androids.

When it comes to what OS workers WISH their company supplied, Android pulled almost half of the vote. From Sophos:

When we asked you what smartphone you wished your company supplied you with, a whopping 41% said you wanted a smartphone running Google Android. Less than a third coveted Apple iPhone.

I found this a little surprising. True, you do have more flexibility with Android when compared to the iPhone. But the Google Play Android marketplace is currently more prone to malware; Google currently don’t police it as stringently as Apple manages its app store.

And finally, most pollees said they wouldn’t have a problem uping the security on their personal phones, but 28% would want their company to foot the monthly phone bills if that were the case.

A few days back we highlighted uTest’s launch of AppGrader for Android. How would the tech world react? Judging from a recently TechCrunch article, we’d say rather favorably. Here are a few excerpts from Sarah Perez’s latest piece, which included some interesting facts and figures about the Android ecosystem:

uTest, a company known for providing a variety of testing solutions for desktop, web and mobile, is launching a new solution designed to grade mobile apps’ performance under real-world conditions, and then compare the app’s rating with that of its competition. The solution, for obvious reasons (i.e., desperate need) is arriving first on Android, with an iOS version to follow soon. The app testing process takes just a few minutes, the company claims, and will then return a report grading the app on a scale of 1 to 100.

In addition to the score, the report also details any issues discovered during the app download, installation and basic usage. To provide more context, the AppGrader report, as it’s called, also compares the app’s grade to those of the most popular applications in the Android Market Google Play store that are found in the same app store category.

Although all mobile developers could benefit from more testing tools, there’s more of need to address the Android developer base first. On Android, developers don’t just have to deal with an incredible number of device types in the wild, they’re also constantly challenged by OS fragmentation, too. According to Google’s own statistics, only 4.9% of users are running the latest version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich), 3.3% are stuck on the version just prior (Honeycomb) while 64.4% are on Gingerbread, which was first released back in December 2010. The remaining 27.4% are running versions that are even older, if you can believe it.

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The iPhone is the number one selling unit. More Android devices are being activated than any other phone. Samsung is crushing it. You can find headlines and articles supporting every one of those statements. You can also find headlines and articles saying the exact opposite of every one of those statements.

The point is, it’s difficult to really tell who is at the top of the mobile devices pack. Stats are always changing and most major companies don’t actually release their numbers – so it’s all speculation anyway. So instead of trying to do it the official way with sales figures and  market monitoring let’s take the pulse of the people.

CNET’s Friday Poll last week asked readers “Who’s the Top Smartphone Maker?” The options were: Apple, Samsung, Motorola, HTC or Other. More than 1,700 people voted. In the end, Samsung won out with 45% of the vote with Apple pulling in second with 31%. As far as “Others” go, I saw a few shout-outs for Blackberry, Nokia and Sony in the comments section. Get more information at CNET.

Which manufacturer do YOU think puts out a superior product? Let us know in the comments!

Steve Wozniak – yes, that Steve Wozniak – went on the record recently about how much he enjoys the Windows Phone operating system, saying that, ‘”Every screen is much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone.” Yeah, we couldn’t believe it either.

Here’s more from the TheVerge.com:

He’s so impressed by it, in fact, that he defines the experience of using a Windows Phone as feeling like you’re “with a friend not a tool.” In his mind, navigating Android is a much more cumbersome experience, to the point where he sees “no contest” between that OS and Windows Phone — Microsoft’s software is much more to his liking. He even goes on to say that iOS is “more awkward” in its interactions than the Lumia phone he’s presently using, though his favorite smartphone still remains the iPhone. The deficit of third-party apps for WP is something he acknowledges as holding that platform back.

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