which android sdk version to release to market?

Question

I want to release an app on the market. It uses nothing new from the 2.0 release like bluetooth for instance and it works well in every emulator using version 1.6 to 2.1.

My question is upon version of the sdk should I distribute my application to make it compatible with all devices running 1.6, 2.0 or 2.1?

I only have a physical device running 1.6 to test it, but as I say, it uses nothing fancy and works well on emulators using API levels 4, 5, 6 or 7.

Thanks

Answer 1

The answers here are good, but here are some more suggestions:

• don't set android:maxSdkVersion unless you are absolutely sure you need it.
• set android:minSdkVersion to 3 so Cupcake devices can run it.
• set android:targetSdkVersion to 4 to indicate the app has been tested on Donut.

Your app should then work well on all >= Cupcake devices. If you have plans to provide high-density resources for high-density screens (Droid, Nexus One), there's a little more work you have to do. It'd be better to start another thread for this, but long story short, you'd put the high-density resources in a folder called drawable-hdpi-v4.

Be sure to check out the uses-sdk doc.

Answer 2

I'd test with 1.5 and put android:minSdkVersion="3" Based on this there are still lot's of devices 1.5 http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html