Software Engineering Services Blog

When Amazon made the decision to create a fairly radical fork of Android to create its Kindle Fire, it left open the possibility of a big challenge for developers.

Since it's introduction, the Fire, priced at just $199, has been selling very well. Amazon reported that sold millions of Kindles in the month leading up to the holiday shopping season in December -- many of which were no doubt Kindle Fires. That means because of its low price and the marketing clout of Amazon itself, the Kindle Fire and its customized version of Android is going to be impossible to ignore.

Todd Anglin, Chief Technology Evangelist at Telerik, an end-to-end provider of software application lifecycle and content management solutions, whom we interviewed for last week's post, Android Fragmentation Debate May Be a Red Herring, says one exception to that is the Kindle Fire, which could be a force on its own.

"The Kindle Fire is a new challenge for Android. No fork of any technical significance has had this much support from a big company. Amazon is in a position with the Kindle Fire to effectively introduce a new operating system, even though the roots are based on Android," Anglin explained.

He added that it wasn't unlike when Apple started OSX from the roots of BSD Unix.

The problem for developers is that it will be like developing for an entirely different operating system, which means you have to create one Android app for every other device and one for Kindle Fire. 

"If the Kindle Fire gains significant market traction, and all signs are that it will, developers will be forced to address it as a unique device," Anglin said. He adds, "Already, Amazon limits apps on the Fire to those available in the Amazon App Store (instead of granting access to the general Google Android Market)."

What this means is developers will be forced to develop for the device as opposed to the operating system. "Ultimately, the implications are no different than another new tablet entering the device space. The fact that Amazon started from Android is a good reference point, but the Kindle Fire adds another distinct option to a list that include Microsoft's Windows Phone (and soon Windows 8) platform, Apple's iOS, BlackBerry's QNX and Blackberry OS, and, of course, "normal" Android devices."

He points out that there is some cross-over for now, but has Android evolves that is likely to change. "Fortunately, it seems many apps designed to work with Android 2.3 can work with the Fire (which forked this version of Android), but as the Fire fork and Android diverge, this compatibility may not survive."

But Anglin says one way out of this device/operating system morass is to develop once on a system like HTML5. And as more devices with different operating system or different developer requirements enter the market, it's entirely likely that developers will choose to develop once with a universal approach, then many times across platforms.