[jrockway]

because I'm stuck with 1.5

Well, yeah. The problem is not Android, the problem is that HTC is not keeping their Sense devices up to date. They apparently think that their proprietary theme is worth more than being able to use up-to-date apps. As a result, HTC should not call the Hero "Android", but they do. Caveat emptor.

I am sure that if you find an original iPhone and don't update the software that you won't be able to use modern App Store apps. This is the same scenario.

[snowstorm]

HTC doesn't even release a SENSE UI emulator. Neither does Motorola Motoblur.

It's just not reasonable to expect developers to have access to all real devices.

All the device manufactures need to stop customizing Android UI unless they are willing to release a emulator.

[jrockway]

Is this really important? From an apps developer standpoint, Sense and Motoblur don't really affect anything. It goes into the background while your app is displayed. If your app works in the emulator, it will work on a Sense / Motoblur device.

The problem here is that Sense is an ugly hack that deeply depends on Android 1.5 internals, and Android 1.6 and 2.0 are much better than 1.5. The result is that apps target 1.6, and Sense's dependencies prevent HTC from deploying 1.6 to Sense devics.

That's my guess anyway, it could just be that HTC is lazy about updates. I still don't have Android 2.0 on my Sapphire, after all...

(The deeper trend I notice is that hardware companies are not into incrementally improving devices. The release date comes, the product is shipped, and it's forgotten in favor of the next device. A simple firmware update that may take on developer one week to prepare is completely ignored, leaving thousands of users with a device that's not as good as it could be. Depressing.)

[sjs]

Agreed, but even then how many emulators do you want to install? I already have iPhone, webOS (Pre and Pixi), and Android.