Why PBS won’t support Android tablets

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Simply put, it’s too complicated for us to even consider an Android app for the first version; we’ll continue to support those viewers with mobile web.

Just take a look at the different sizes of Android tablets they would have to support—that’s a nightmare.



63 thoughts on “Why PBS won’t support Android tablets”

  1. Android OS works differently than iOS. You dont have to program different apps for different screen sizes. So any tablet app you make should work just fine for anything between 7-10 inches.

    The problem that PBS (and other android developsers) have, has nothing to do with screen size but more of a comparability between android forks/version.

  2. I would prefer web apps be developed simply for some goddamn ubiquity in mobile applications.

  5. Apologist. The BBC had already explained their issues with developing for Android.

  6. Nope, the problem is the fragmentation. Of phones’ features, and OS version. An android developer can not use new APIs nearly as soon as an iOS dev. And there is a lot more compatibility testing to do.

  7. Yep. Even one of shiftyjelly’s examples of Android being fast was due to most of the hard work was already done for the iOS version.

  12. Are you by any chance an Android dev? If so, have you not looked into the compatibility library?

    Certain features, regardless of OS, will not work on old versions (hi Siri for iPhone 4’s, Google Now for Android 2.2 [i think], etc]. That’s just the world we live in as devs but your statement about APIs is pretty far off, from a dev standpoint.

  13. PBS is a relatively resource constrained organization. I don’t think they’re just saying this for the sheer hell of it. They also intimated that the would be an Android app eventually.

  14. so the PBS guys have no idea what they’re talking about, right? nor the BBC team?

    these are video player apps. of course they have to worry about screen size and ratio.

  16. Wow, has this blog been invaded by Android apologists? The obfuscation campaign is even more spin-tastic at the PBS story.

    All these people claiming it’s cool to take into account all the different Android screen sizes. Do they even have a clue from the content creation point of view? It’s not just numbers you plug into your developer tools to make the screen sizes different (dynamic) that’s required.

    I create educational material for a living. Print, e-learning and web. The critical question is, do all these Android devices have the same aspect ratio? (i.e. 16×9) If not, then that is an issue. You have to create the video in each separate proportion, or your video will be distorted. And with the wide ranging sizes of Android screens, you have to take the step of having a dynamic video streaming service that will detect the size of the screen and then stream an optimized version of the video to minimize bandwidth.

    Then there’s the design of the user interface. It has to be adjusted for the available real estate for the widgets. You want to design them in a way that makes it easy to navigate and use. Of course with the video taking over the screen they can move out of the way or fade away. That’s not the problem, What is, is if you let some software design your interface for you (dynamic scaling) you are going to have a sub-optimal user experience.

    We design for the iPad and the iPad only for our own students in the classroom. Why? It’s simply stupid to dedicate resources to two teams when the fact of the matter is, the iPad is the dominant tablet. We know 84 percent of tablet usage on the Internet is the iPad.

    But also because we’ve tried the other tablets and even for our web presentation in Blackboard for e-learning, the other tablets offered nothing compelling to cause us to choose going with more than the iPad. And they offered plenty of impediments. Poor performance, devices that didn’t support upgrades for a few years at least – or even email!

    So, we include the iPad in some programs as a part of their tuition. They’re handed an iPad with all the curriculum on it. We have students all over the world and they don’t have great Internet everywhere. The rest can use whatever they want, but they almost always choose iPads. The only students who don’t seem to choose Apple products are the CAD students who need a PC to run the dedicated CAD software (and 3D printers) that are only available for Windows.

    Just to show that we’re not just some minor shop that doesn’t know what they’re doing, we we told by several major universities they wished their e-learning curriculum was as good as ours. Apple said a few years ago we were on the cutting edge of e-learning development. We were even called the “Harvard of e-learning.”

  17. Of course they do. They are the one’s dealing with their problems so they know what the deal is but that doesn’t mean they have experts on the case.

    Android 2.3 and down misses out one some key streaming functionality so if they are having problems with streaming…understandable (100%). If they are having trouble with layouts, their devs…honestly and bluntly…just aren’t that good.

  18. Yep…I know. Too bad too. I really like PBS.

    The problem is…they haven’t even tried. They’re looking around at stats/charts and deciding on that. They should put their feet in the water and see how cold it is.

  19. Does your company have a responsive site? Android dev is no different than that. You have to deal with 4-5 screen resolutions. That’s about it.

    “And with the wide ranging sizes of Android screens, you have to take the step of having a dynamic video streaming service that will detect the size of the screen and then stream an optimized version of the video to minimize bandwidth.”

    • This doesn’t depend on the screen size, per se, but the resolution. That’s more important but this is a streaming issue regardless of OS and one we’ve solved numerous times for web/mobile offerings. (I’ve done quite a bit of streaming in my day)

  22. Any organization that’s considering putting (very limited) resources on a project would do that kind of due diligence. That, in itself, is a commitment of sorts.

  23. My point exactly, thanks. They made a business decision, not a technical one, based on their perception of Android.

    I have no beef w/ their decision. Playing it as “Android development sucks” is simply incorrect and easily debunked.

    Simply take the whole “system” Gruber/team had to create for Vesper to do dynamic theming/etc (DB5: http://inessential.com/2013/06/27/open_source_db5). That’s been in Android dev for quite a while now and would’ve saved them X hours.

    Simply saying…their post isn’t about tech and DEFINITELY not about dev speed.

  24. Size isn’t the issue as much as the tweaks different carriers put in. Especially UI changes or not supporting all API

  25. It was a business decision based on the technical complexities of developing for Android, given the commercial ROI for doing so (zero). Bear in mind that iOS users, generally speaking, are more liberal and better educated than Android users, and therefore it’s a reasonable assumption that they’re more likely to contribute to and support PBS.

    http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/22/ios-vs-android-user-profile-infographic/

    Also, no one said “Android development sucks”, nice straw man though.

  26. There are certainly times when a web app might make more sense. Streaming video could be one.

  29. Oh the ‘better educated’ argument from an OSX site ~2 years old. Nice one! You just lost all credibility in this discussion.

    “Just take a look at the different sizes of Android tablets they would have to support—that’s a nightmare.”

    ^ Equivalent to ‘Android development sucks’, along with the numerous other posts Jim has made on the very same topic.

  30. That’s not difficult. As much streaming as they do I’m sure they have encoded their assets to fit device sizes. Even if they haven’t, they will have to for iDevices as well.

    The thing is, with streaming/VOD, you don’t need exact sizes. Your aspect ratio needs to match or be close to it. 16:9 is the default streaming ratio but iPads are 4:3. They will not encode their assets to 4:3. Letterboxing will be utilized, as with all other 16:9 content you watch on your iPad.

    Point: they don’t need videos for every screen size. Match the aspect ratio or live in a letterboxed world, which is what they will be forced to do on iOS anyway.

  32. Android 2.3 Gingerbread was released on Dec 6th 2010. Android as a platform has been a going concern since Sept 23rd of 2008. To continue to pretend that the issues with Android is one of inexperienced programmers is disingenuous. Is there is nothing like this to be concerned with at any level on iOS.

  33. No developer who is serious about his product ships without testing. I’m totally shocked people argue the difference isn’t that big of a deal. Even if it isn’t, it needs to be tested.

  34. Apart from the guy here claiming they didn’t understand the technical issues sufficiently.

  37. We’re not even discussing version history so nothing disingenuous about our convo.

    To be honest, I ignore < 4 all together for certain apps. It is a large segment (~33% of the Android market) but to do our part to further the version adoption many have stopped supporting 2.x. For clients, I will though and I simply use the compat’ library to use new features while supporting the older versions.

  38. Agreed but you don’t need to test on every device released. You simply need one of each screen density: https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html#Screens.

    The emulator sucks though so I wouldn’t trust that at all. Android Studio helps with the ability to show you your app across multiple devices on one screen but that’s not the same as device testing.

    (see Shifty Jelly post I linked to where they mentioned testing cost more as well)

  40. It’s so weird for people who don’t do this for a living to comment on it with absolutes as if they truly have experienced the issues they’re discussing. Kind of like explaining addiction to recovering addicts without ever having been addicted.

  45. No, I mean about having claimed neither PBS nor the BBC are capable of understanding the technical issues.

  46. Wow, I’m starting to think you guys don’t read my comments in full but respond purely out of distaste for me not being of the same mind.

    Which comment did I make where I said they didn’t understand the technical issues? I mentioned PBS seems to have used suits to determine it. BBC is doing Android so they are speaking to their experiences.

  47. point: the people who do this for a living (PBS) says it’s harder than you seem to think it is.

    ill go with the opinions of PBS and BBC on this.

  49. where did you say it? right here:

    “They made a business decision, not a technical one,”

    …you, without any knowledge of their processes or knowledge, have somehow determined that they make their decisions out of an ignorant business decision, made by their “suits”, not their technical staff. how you know this is beyond any reasonable guess.

  52. As we are all doing, I used their words on their blog post to state their process. It is definitely speculation but the author writes as more suit than dev and state their decision was based on data (charts/etc) from their linked resource.

    But in no way did I say they did not understand the technical issues. Their decision, IMHO, was not rooted in technical expertise.

  53. I’m not talking about phone hardware features, I’m talking about new APIs that provide new software features and make working with existing features easier. Just look at the percentage of iOS users that are on the latest iOS. (~90%) Now look at the percentage of Android users that are using the latest Android. (~38%)You have to hold back on using new APIs because two thirds of your customer base can’t use them.

  56. Screen density is only part of the problem. Video cards can also pose a compatibility problem.

  57. It’s so weird for people that disagree with you suddenly “don’t do this for a living.”

  61. It isn’t about disagreeing it is about being flat out wrong. Speaking about a topic you don’t know personally/professionally as if you know what you are talking about…well…isn’t a good look.

  62. That helps with some, but not all functionality, and kudos to Google for providing it. However, there are core OS changes that affect compatibility and performance that aren’t handled by this.

  63. Agreed, but there are an awful lot of assumptions about people’s expertise being made here based purely on disagreement.

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