WordPress announced that it will stop supporting Android 2.3 Gingerbread later this month, citing a significant drop in usage and the desire to focus on rapid development of the app.
WordPress, the leading web software, revealed that it will stop supporting Android 2.3 Gingerbread later this month. Users of the WordPress mobile app will require Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or later versions up to Android 4.4.x KitKat. The move comes after the company observed a steady decline in Gingerbread usage over the last few months. Statistics now stand at less than 10 percent of Gingerbread users.
The company said that supporting old and new versions of the operating system means more work, resulting in longer delays between releases. Officials said that the work put in is worth the effort if a lot of users gain access to the app. However, the declining number so of Gingerbread users makes all the effort a waste of time, so moving on to the larger audience seems a sensible move so better features can be added and rolled out to end users in shorter time.
"This means over 90% of our users are paying a "Gingerbread tax" - waiting longer for new versions and not seeing features that take advantage of their phones - so that we can continue supporting older devices," Nick Bradbury wrote on the WordPress blog, Friday. "We've decided to abolish this tax. Starting with version 2.9 of WordPress for Android - due later this month - new versions will only support devices running Android 4.0 or later. If you're using an older phone, the previous version of our app will still appear in Google Play and you'll still be able to use it."
According to recent statistics released by Google, 16.2 percent of Google Play Users still use Gingerbread. The Next Web reported that WordPress 2.8 will still be available to older phones because it will still feature on the Play Store.
"We'll be honest: our developers - including myself - are happy about this because it'll make us more productive. But the thing we're the happiest about is that it will result in a faster, smaller, better app for the large majority of our users," Bradbury added.
