Time Warner on Friday announced that its finally bringing a live video app to Google Android users, but only if they are using Google Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS) or higher.
According to a Time Warner product manager Android 4.0 is the “the only version of the Android OS that allows us the security and stability necessary to distribute video over our private network.”
While an iOS version of the live video app was released to Apple iOS users in early 2011 the company found it much more difficult to create a sustainable app for Google Android based devices. Google developers have long complained that the products fragmentation among various hardware manufacturers have made it hard to create a stable product that works across all devices.
For example a Motorola devices on Verizon will work differently in terms of Android capabilities than a Samsung Galaxy II on AT&T’s network.
According to app author Jeff Simmermon creating the Android app was like “tweezing one’s eyebrows while using a disco ball as a mirror.” On the other hand it was “much easier” to develop a live video app on Apple’s platform. He pointed out the advantage that iOS is made by the same company that manufactures the hardware, making it easy to make the experience consistent across devices.”
In his company’s post Simmermon points out that updates to the Time Warner live app will also be inconsistent with Motorola likely pushing out updates at a different time than HTC or Samsung because of differences in their software and hardware setups.
While the new app is good news for Time Warner fans Android 4.0 is still only installed on 3% of all Android based devices, however some devices will soon be eligible for the update. In the meantime it’s unlikely that 2.x Android users will ever see an update.
