Google has introduced multiple APK support for the Android Market. This is good news for developers as it goes at least part way to managing fragmentation issues.

The fact that there are multiple versions of Android has been a source of confusion for end users and frustration for developers. Up until now this problem was exacerbated by the fact that each product listing on Android Market was restricted to a single APK file.

Google had announced its intention to introduce multiple APK support at Google I/O and a blog post last Thursday announced that this facility has now been added and developers can now upload multiple versions of an APK for a single product listing.

So if you have versions of your app for Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2 and so on an end user looking for it will be able to see all the possibilities and choose the appropriate version for their device.

If this is all it takes to make fragmentation not a problem it raises the question of why it has taken so long to implement?! Of course we still have the difficulties of having to create the different versions and a more fundamental fix will take a lot longer.

Further reading

Android 3.2 - getting closer to a single OS

Android moves on to 3.1 and Ice Cream Sandwich