Android fragmentation reduces a little bit

Google has updated the stats showing the percent of users on each version of Android, and things are looking a little bit better.

One of the biggest problems with Android is OS fragmentation; users on a variety of software versions, making it more difficult for developers to write apps that everyone can use.

Google has just updated the chart showing those versions, and things have improved slightly.  Android 2.1 has moved from 27.3% last month to 32.4% this month, which is a solid improvement.  However, it still has a long way to go and the release of Android 2.2 in the near future will only make things worse in this regard.

A great example of this (as TechCrunch points out) is the recent release of the official Twitter application — it can only run on Android 2.1, leaving 67.6% of users unable to download it.

My hope is that 2.2 won’t really make things worse, and developers can target 2.1/2.2 with very similar techniques (similar to Windows with 95/98 or Vista/7).  We’ll find out soon.