I’ve owned a Droid since it was first released back in November 2009. Usually I’m not a first time adopter and like for others to work out the kinks before I invest in a product, but the Motorola Droid appeared to be an awesome phone and at the time was running the newest version of Android, 2.0. Since I’ve owned my Droid, I’ve rooted it, installed other roms and even beta releases of Android 2.1 and 2.2.

I’ve also noticed over the last 8 months the outcry from some people especially the techies and tech news sites the complaints about the fragmentation of android. By fragmentation I am referring to android phones running different versions of the android os. Now as a power user I understand the frustration when the Google Branded Nexus One gets Android 2.2 before everyone else but I also realize that is to be expected as it was the first phone marketed and sold exclusively by Google. It was basically the Google Reference phone, so of course its going to get Froyo before the rest of us that being said the debacle with the 2.1 upgrade from verizon for the droid has left a bad taste in some people’s mouth. But honestly ask yourself does the average consumer even care that 2.2 hasn’t been released on their droid or evo 4g. I dont think they give a rats ass, as long as they can make their calls, receive texts and do whatever else they do on their phone they could care less about an os upgrade that adds a few more features that they might never use.

As a power user I push my phone to the limit so yes I’m slighted by the fact that Nexus One gets Android 2.2 before the rest of us, but motorola has already announced that the Droid and Droid-X will both be getting Android 2.2 before the summer is over. Let us hope that Verizon doesnt muck up the release again, not that it matters to me since I’m already on 2.2 thanks to the awesome rom community that surrounds the Android community.

I guess the question is, is the Fragmentation in Android phones really that big of a problem? In my opinion its not because the average consumer doesnt care and honestly us geeks are just the very vocal minority. We have to remember that the carriers like stability over the hot newness. Plus Google has already stated that with 3.0 Android will be moving toward a more modular makeup basically making updates as easy as going to the app store.