Implementation Prerequisites - Learn OpenGL ES: For Mobile Game and Graphics Development - page 35

(latency). We often observe delays or lags when interacting with graphics applica-
tions, especially during gameplays. This is completely unacceptable, because a few
milliseconds can spoil the entire user experience. If developers do not take steps to
prevent this, users simply switch to other similar applications that are lag-free.
Although this is not true of earlier Android versions, graphics applications developed
on Gingerbread do not suffer from delays or lags. (Reasons for this can be found
at http://www.badlogicgames.com/wordpress/?p=1315 ). Addition-
ally, Google IO 2011: Memory management for Android Apps , a conference session
held by Google (the video for this session is available on YouTube), explains that
pre-Gingerbread garbage collectors are the primary cause for a laggy response from
applications, although sometimes the application itself could be flawed or buggy.
At the time of writing, less than 6% of all Android devices have Donut, Eclair, or
Froyo versions. It is common for owners to upgrade to Gingerbread. As a result,
Gingerbread accounts for more than 40% of the Android OS version distribution
( Figure 2-1 ).
Figure 2-1 . Android OS: version distribution