Mobile Hit Angry Birds Runs Into Android Issues

Rovio Mobile, the studio behind the mobile hit Angry Birds, on Thursday admitted it is having issues with the free, ad-supported Android version of the title on certain Android phone models. While Rovio said it is preparing a solution so fans with any Android phone can play the game, the 18 now officially-unsupported Android phones may highlight Apple CEO Steve Jobs' criticisms that the platform's market is detrimentally fragmented. "Android is very fragmented," said Jobs during an Apple earnings call last month. His company's competing iOS for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is spread across relatively few Apple-owned mobile models. "...The users will have to figure it all out. Compare this with iPhone, where every handset works the same." The Angry Birds team said in its blog post today, "With our latest update [to the Android version], we worked hard to bring Angry Birds to even more Android devices. Despite our efforts, we were unsuccessful in delivering optimal performance," the developer said. "Right now we are running even more testing and resolving all the issues we have identified. We are also looking at all of the feedback we have received, and trying to improve the ad performance." The company said it is working on a "lightweight" version of Angry Birds for Android that is playable on older Android phones that have lower specs. Among the Android phones currently not supported for Angry Birds play are the HTC Dream, Motorola Backflip/MB300, Samsung Transform, T-Mobile G2 and others. Devices running Android OS versions below 1.6 or custom ROMs are also not currently supported. Rovio said it is working towards supporting all Android phones. Angry Birds, released on the App Store in December last year, has sold 10 over million units on Apple's iOS storefront, according to Rovio. Last month, the developer released the game for free on Android platforms, where the title was downloaded 2 million times in its first few days of availability. Including free and paid downloads from the App Store, Android platform, Palm WebOS, Symbian^3 and the Nokia N900, Angry Birds has been downloaded 30 million times, according to Rovio.