Android Development: Make your application backward compatible
Android SDK versions market share keeps changing dramtically over a period of few months because of frequent releases of both newer SDK versions and capabilities and sales of the newer devices which makes my Desire HD2 with Analog buttons at the bottom look like a Antique (According to google anyways).
For Android developers it is a ongoing battle to make their Applications backward compatible so that they may capture the most of the market share, regardless of which android platform version has the major share in the android market, this is where the Google’s compatibility library comes in handy.
Google’s compatibility library which can be downloaded via ASM (Android SDK Manager) is a package that provides support for the older API as far back as Android 1.6. which at the moment covers 97% of all Android devices active in the Android Market.
When should i use the Compatibility library?
If you are developing a application that leverages the newer funcitonalities available in the later versions of the SDK but the majority of the market is still using a older version of the SDK and or several of the SDK versions in the market have high share, hence it is wise to make your application backward compatible to cover all those older SDK versions and still be able to develop under the newer SDK.
For more information check out the following links.
http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/api-levels.html
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v13/app/FragmentCompat.html
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