Temple Run For Android Highlights Ongoing Fragmentation Issues

A big, scary buzzword for years, "fragmentation" is still alive and well in the Android world. This time, Temple Run's official platform launch highlights the seemingly deep-rooted problem. Macgasm, after a bit of cursory research on Temple Run's Facebook announcement page, has cited an unusual number of compatibility complaints:

...the majority of those comments are either people pissed that the game doesn’t work on their handset, or the geekier bunch explaining to the masses that their crappy old Android phones aren’t powerful enough.

Following up the blog's assertions, I checked out the feedback for myself. It's all true. A great many users, while happy the smash hit's finally arrived in their neck of the woods, are extremely frustrated at the apparent lack of wide-ranging support for Android's many active iterations. A few representative comments follow -- I didn't even have to do any cherry-picking:

John Eynon: this app does not work on my og droid -- this is an outrage!
Richy Graffiti Karma: Please make it compatible on MyTouch 3G, my friend has the MyTouch 4G and he has it. Soo jelly!
Noah Bates: Does anyone have a samsung stratosphere and tried it yet.?
Jaleel Davenport: Please make compatible for the lg optimus t
Akaila Hendricks Uhmm anyone tried lg enlighten ? What's the point of putting now on Android if its only on select Androids #dumb
Ignacio Gonzalez: Please make it compatible with SAMSUNG GT-S5570
Junaid Amjad: Dont work on galaxy prevail -,-
Rhys Davey: make it work on the galaxy Y coz i have been waiting ages and its a great disappointment.
Maddy Dunski: Wow. Not even. Please put it on more than 3 types of androids.
Dalvia Buissereth: It doesn't work you freaking rip offs and I have metro pcs the admire

And so on. For hundreds of pages. While true that Apple kit runs out of support, too, that eventuality is far more gradual. Right now, you can't buy a new iDevice that won't support Temple Run, and that's the crux of this whole fragmentation issue. Whenever you get a new iPhone or iPad or iPod touch, you know it's going to run just about everything you can throw at it for at least a few years to come. There's never any confusion. Yes, these out-of-luck Android users could upgrade to a newer device, but that's hardly a practical solution when you've got to do so every three to six months just to stay afloat. Meanwhile, my "walled garden" is in full bloom. It's beautiful in here. And there's lemonade.

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