83% of Android Phones Now on 2.1 or Higher

So I’ve rewritten this post almost 5 times now and can’t decide where to go with it.  I’ll just ramble on for a minute and let you guys take it from there…

Do we have a fragmentation problem?  Looking at the new chart of Android OS distribution says that fragmentation might be on the outs, but we all know Gingerbread is around the corner.  Manufacturers will soon be trying to catch their phones up to that, only not all of them will meet the spec requirements to get there and will be left behind on 2.1 or even 2.2.  And since phone manufacturers like putting out cheap options for customers, some of these phones will be stuck from the beginning of their lives in lower Android builds for at least 2 years or until the consumer upgrades.  But is it really a problem?  Some analysts say that it’s a nightmare for developers, while the developers themselves seem to think fragmentation is a non-issue.  Which is it?

Again, I have no idea where I’m going with this as I’m sure you can tell from the randomness of that entire paragraph.

Your thoughts?

Via:  Android Developers