In an effort to expand the functionality of its smartwatch, Pebble announced its new project aimed at getting the watch and its SDK into the hands of engineering students by donating over 4,000 units to universities like Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Standford, Virginia Tech, and others. Right now, the market for smartwatches is still made up of early adopters, but by encouraging development of apps via their official SDK, Pebble, a frontrunner in the space, could potentially make the watches attractive to a more mainstream audience. Only time will tell what comes of increased developer traction for the platform, but Pebble is looking like a strong competitor.
Tag: development
Android Matrix of Pain Leaves Developers Hurting
Many computing elite find Apple’s tight hardware standards and highly controlled ecosystem constricting, even if it is in the interest of system stability. Google’s Android exists with a very different outlook, supporting hardware from a variety of manufacturers, multiple versions of the OS, and a wide open development environment. This fragmentation comes at a cost, what some developers have come to call the Android Matrix of Pain. Developing for iOS has been a relatively straightforward process since the mobile platform’s launch, but the process of porting popular iOS apps to Android compliments has caused developers to make some compromises including supporting only recent Android versions, leaving out large chunks of the user base. A handful of companies have cropped up to offer comprehensive testing on a variety of Android hardware, but Android’s market dominance could suffer if greater standardization doesn’t allow wider app compatibility.
