Welcome to the digital world.
If you want the latest and greatest, surprise! you might have to pay for it.
If an app developer chooses to write an app that only works on Android 2.x, that's their call. Maybe users of the older phones suffer, but it's so that the app can be more capable on the newer OS. If they had chosen to write that same app on 1.x, forward compatibility would allow it to run on 2.x, but might not be able to take advantage of additional functionality/features.
If a user chooses a device that won't ever get an upgrade to Android 2.x, that's all on them. We live in a throw-away society, most people get a new phone every year or two anyway. So if that user wants the latest and greatest, it's their responsibility to upgrade.
Just like it would be ridiculous for a person to complain that their dvd player won't play blu-ray, or that their 386 computer won't run vista, or that their xbox 1 won't play call of duty: modern warfare 2, or that their 1908 model T doesn't have an electric starter, power steering, air conditioning, or even headlights; it's equally ridiculous to complain that an older device isn't the newest, greatest thing. Now, I agree that anyone that just bought the Eris, or Hero, or the Moment, might feel like they deserve an upgrade. But if they went on historic evidence, they might not think of it as a sure thing.
I've had multiple PDA phones for years, it was always a miracle if we got ANY kind of update within the 2 years we were stuck using the phone that didn't really do everything we'd hoped for. The Droid got an update within the first month! that's a great sign, verizon and motorola might be setting new precedence. Or, we might never get another update.
What sets the Droid apart from the WM phones of the past is the sheer number of 'average' people that are buying them. Five years ago, if someone told you you'd be running linux on your cell phone, you'd either be a character from The Bang Theory, or close to it.
One nice thing is that even if the carriers choose not to upgrade the OS, the open source community is very likely to take up the slack, there are already rom upgrades available for a lot of the phones, and just like the issue that the carriers face, the phone's cpu/memory/hardware itself can be a limiting factor. Go get a G1 and put Android 2.1 on it and see for yourself if it's what most people would call usable..
The article is kind of retarded anyway, suggesting that HTML5 will be the end-all for development disparity.. Devices will always have different resolutions, cpus, and built-in hardware.
ok, i'll stop ranting now..
