Upon loading up our pre-release Motorola RAZR i with our favorite Google apps, we were surprised to find one that simply refused to install -- Google's popular Chrome browser. Google Play allowed the Intel-powered phone to download Chrome, but promptly displayed a "package file is invalid" error upon installation.
Suspecting an incompatibility with the RAZR i's Intel Atom CPU, we contacted Motorola. The manufacturer confirmed our hypothesis -- the current version of Chrome is indeed incompatible with Intel-based Android phones, though there's good news for anyone considering picking up a RAZR i when it's released in early October. Motorola expects an updated, Intel-friendly version of Chrome for Android to be available around launch time. Here's Moto's statement in full --
There is not a version available that is optimised for Intel. We expect it at in-store launch or shortly thereafter.
In the meantime, we're managing just fine with the RAZR i's nippy native browser.
Reader comments
Current version of Chrome not compatible with RAZR i, Intel-friendly update coming soon
So can we expect other apps that aren't "Intel friendly"? Does each developer need to re compile their apps for them to work on these phones?
No. Most Play Store apps work just fine.
Only app that use the NDK. Of course, all they need to change is the flag which tells the computer which processors to include in the compiled libraries. Since Android x86 has been around for a while, I will have say that this is just someone at Google dropping the ball.
You do realise this phone has not been released yet? A bit harsh to say that not supporting an unreleased phone is dropping the ball.
Apps using Dalvik should just work, because it uses a platform-neutral virtual machine. NDK apps would need a recompile, but Motorola has a binary ARM->x86 translator that they claim works for most apps.
Once this issue is worked out, I'd love to see details about its cause. This could be an issue for (a minority of) other developers, and they should be given a heads-up about this.
i was wondering if this would be an issue. Lets hope its not and this is just an easy fix... thats all we need... app fragmentation too!!
Its really easy, they just need to use their existing code and compile again with the "APP_ABI := x86 " flag after they install the Intel or x86 tool chain.
I guess we'll see :) My guess is a majority of games use the native-code, and if the developer didn't bother with including x86 binaries - and I'd bet a fair number didn't since everything's ARM - this issue would be one i would expect pops up alot.
I really hope this isn't the case, as competing CPU makers would be awesome, just not at the risk of causing the devs more coding pain.