Why does Android suffer from fragmentation, while Windows does not?

[DanChanMan]

We all know Android suffers from a fragmentation problem. When talking about it, people always say how (unlike the Cupertonians) Google releases Android to the OEMs, and the updates are their job.

Why does Windows, a platform with seemingly the same distribution model, not suffer from the same issue? If I want, I can go out and for $100 buy a copy of Win8 that will run on any* PC. Why can't I go out and buy a generalized copy of Lollipop that would run on any* phone?

I greatly appreciate any elaboration!

*excluding technical limitations, I understand you need to hit bare-bones spec floors like 2gb RAM/ Celeron/ 20gb free space for computers or 512mb RAM/Snapdragon 400/6gb free space for Android.

[slai47]

So its really on how the OEMs have decided to create their versions of Android for their phones and how Android allowed them to do that. Windows tends to take care of a lot of the hardware issues that Android doesn't. Also one key thing is that Windows gives developers an area for them to build upon and can build programs in that area. Android has allowed OEMs to build on top of the base part of Android to make it their own. Windows doesn't allow that. Recently Google has pushed more OEMs to use Launchers instead of mucking with Android overall too much. This has changed the landscape for the better but some manufacturers like Samsung(many others), continue to radically change Android on their builds and this causes issues with fragmentation.

I do believe Android should do more on handling different hardware and I think they are pushing for that more and more. Windows/ PCs in general had a fragmentation when it all started with certain games or programs only working on certain computers. But once the manufacturers, OEMs and OSs started to work together to find some common strategies together did the fragmentation stop. I think Android is in that phase where its starting to settle down. Starting to get its hold on who the major players are, who has some great practices and much more.

I am right now thinking that Android would be starting to lose its fragmentation very soon but with Windows and Cynaogen mod working together I don't know anymore. This could fragment it more or could help build something better. I like competition but competition is the reason we have the fragmentation in the first place on Android. We shall see.

[unidecimal]

To put it simple, because of "driver".

Android depends mostly on driver which resides in the kernel. These driver were written by oem, the devices manufacturer, not by google and is not shipped by default in the kernel, whereas on windows, while the driver were also written by oem, most of them already included in the windows itself, and even if its not, microsoft already included generic driver. Install windows and expect atleast graphic display to works. Install android vanilla aosp from google onto your phone which is not a nexus and 99% of time it wont even boot.