Xing Android App: You Suck!

First, I am sorry for any strong language and (to) direct critics.

Android is my favorite open system of all time. Thanks to its open stack (Linux, Android, Google and OHA’s thinking) devices with Android are just incredible. As a developer you can do stuff you can only dream about on other devices and system (no finger pointing). There are over 50’000 applications in the app store. And most of them them work on all devices. The API level system Android has is great. If a device does not support an API level, you can not install it. No biggy here. Thats life (and did not say “fragmentation” ;-))

But today I came across the Xing Android app. Cool, managing my Xing contacts on my Desire. Guess what? It does not work on any Android device besides Motorola’s Droid/Milestone. It just doesn’t launch. All you see is this screen.

Why you might ask? Because Xing has agreed on a exclusive deal, only allowing Milestone/Droid users to use the app before August 2nd. After that date, the app will be released for all phones.

I call this bullshit!

Why on earth should you limit any application to one specific device, if the hard- and software is capable of running it? I don’t give a sh*t about your exclusive arrangement with Motorola! Developers at Android put hours and days of work to make sure, devices with different versions of the operating system and API level can work together, and you just block any device.

End of Rant. Sorry. Calming down now…