2.x & minimum APIs

[sorex]

Hello,

Can those who have a lot of users have a look and see if 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.x is still used a lot?

And what should be the minimum API these days?

I noticed that a simple image view rotation already requires API11 which is 3.0+.
I believe the same goes for AdMob since it requires API13 or 14 if I recall right.

I have a lot of 2.x devices that I use for testing and I wonder if it's still worth to focus on those
especially since some have very low resolutions (240x400 is the worst)

 

[Roycefer]

https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html?utm_source=suzunone

 

[sorex]

thanks, @Roycefer.

so it's not worth to keep those 4% of 2.x users in mind?

 

[Roycefer]

It depends on your app. If you are a blood-thirsty profit-driven capitalist, then definitely no. Not only will the effort not be worth it but people with 19 year old Android devices are unlikely to spend much money on apps. But if your app is geared towards people with limited means (and this could include youngsters who get hand-me-down devices), they are more likely to have older devices with outdated OS versions and it may be worth it to cater to them.

 

[JonPM]

It depends on your app. If you are a blood-thirsty profit-driven capitalist, then definitely no. Not only will the effort not be worth it but people with 19 year old Android devices are unlikely to spend much money on apps. But if your app is geared towards people with limited means (and this could include youngsters who get hand-me-down devices), they are more likely to have older devices with outdated OS versions and it may be worth it to cater to them.

I think the better answer is if you can live without libraries that require higher API's then go for it. Otherwise it comes time to cut the umbilical cord and focus on the future.

 

[cambopad]

I recommend you go for Andoid 4.0+. According to my experiences, Android 2.3 users started to decrease dramatically days by days. Currently, for all of my apps, only 1% of the users are using Android 2.3. The rest are using Android 4.0+. The majority of the users are using Android 4.4, so you can estimate that people are always moving to the newer version of OS and phones. Android phones are getting cheaper, so people have many choices to get the newer smartphones.

 

[sorex]

@JonPM : I barely use libraries but if I want to go for free I need admob and that's API13 and that leaves out 2.x devices I guess?

Maybe the page I looked at gave wrong info as I used admob once and it ran fine on 2.x.

@cambopad : indeed, the price range is huge too (€40-800+) compared to IOS which starts from 300+ or so.