First off, don’t pay too much attention to the quotes, the selectively “open” nature of android market will be the topic of another post.

This weekend I was busy rebuilding my Nexus S when I discovered that ShootMe, the definitive screenshot application for Android was no longer available on the market.

With so many similarly named apps, it took quite a while for me to accept that I was searching under the correct name (due to the disparity between the way names appear on Market vs below their icons after installation) and instead research its disappearance.

I finally found this, from the twitter account of the developer:

For those that have been asking: I’ve put ShootMe, PicMe & Itching Thumb on ice , time for some reflection…

Link: http://twitter.com/#!/belgianwaves/status/105941820332195840

After some more reading, it turns out that a combination of 1-star reviews and complaints from LUSERS* who ignored the guidance given in the app listing (that it requires root and that most issues following an upgrade can be fixed with a simple reinstall) and instead chose to flame and defame its developer.

The discussion of fragmentation is one which never seems to go away, usually in the context of screen sizes, hardware specifications and OS releases. Is root another?

Would it help developers if Google detected rooted devices and by default hid apps from users which required root if they didn’t have a rooted device attached to their account? I’m not sure I like the idea of hiding the work of developers of rooted apps, their work is one of the reasons that many choose to root. Would a large ‘incompatible’ banner across the page get the message across? Should developers be allowed to set requirements against their applications before users can post reviews?

* I have zero tolerance for folk who can’t read the first two lines of the description for an app, yet feel it’s totally ok with writing huge walls of text about how bad the app/developer is.