Back in 2009 (when apparently I was a much bigger fan of iOS) I wrote about how Apple got it right in how they managed OS upgrades compared to RIM who let the carriers control when and if devices got upgraded.  Sound familiar? Substitute Google/Android for RIM and it is the exact same scene playing out all over again.

To highlight the absurdity of this yesterday Google announced Chrome for iOS, while Chrome for iOS is far from perfect if I choose to I can install it today on my original iPad 1.  Everyone knows though that I prefer Android over iOS, so what about Android? Yes Chrome for Android has been out for a while and is now out of beta….. if you happen to have a device running Android 4.0+.  So while I have an Android Phone running 2.x and a tablet running 3.x (neither of which will officially ever see an upgrade to 4.0) if I want to run Chrome on a tablet I need to turn to an Apple product.

No I am not going to abandon Android, there is too much I like about it, but the Android Update Alliance  announced at Google IO in 2011 has not been heard from since.

Device updates were clearly not RIM’s only (or even biggest) problem, but Google should nonetheless learn a lesson and fix Android updates, it is long overdue.