Reading about the massive fragmentation issue that exists in Android today in a recent TechCrunch article is really an eye opener. The amount of devices games developer Animoca had available to test was a flashback to the old days of J2ME (insert shivering here). This is not news to industry insiders, and industry experts like Vision Mobile have pointed this out many times before. But the TechCrunch article and the great image posted here (courtesy TechCrunch) may open the eyes of all app developers to the issue in understanding the level of this fragmentation that has to be overcome for developers to increase their coverage so that they can realize the true revenue potential of their app.
However, fragmentation has multiple sides. If you for instance think you can make money in Asia using PayPal or Google Wallet as your in-app billing engine, guess again. Virtually nobody will use them. And of course you need to have the right local ad network if ads are your monetization strategy. Also, you will quickly reach language barriers, and even in countries where presumably English is well known, preference is likely to be given to apps in local language.
Another fragmentation is distribution and marketing. Your app should be available in as many places as possible, and you need to figure out what you can do to drive downloads once you have gotten distribution coverage.
All of this is a tall task even for fairly large developers. But this is also why CodeNgo is here, to help ease the business side of your business – so you can focus on what you do best: Create cool apps!
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