Exactly. I mean, Chrome itself (being an app) is pushing updates on android at a cadence now that almost matches what they are doing on the desktop.

Doing hardware integration is a lot harder than writing an app. I wish more app developers recognized this.

(That said: I do think Google could have done a much better job at separating out the true kernel/HAL/BSP layer stuff, which needs to be done per-device, from the framework layers that are largely device-independent. There's no reason to force a full hardware test just to push an fix for the Intents framework or whatever).

I can't even run chrome on my android (2.3). I've resorted to Firefox which is actually pretty nice.

Firefox for Android supports Froyo (2.2) up the latest Jelly Bean (4.2). Chrome for Android only supports ICS (4.0).

Performance is part of the Chrome brand and supporting 2.3 would only serve to weaken that brand. It would also require a monumental engineering effort.

Can you be more specific? There is no reason for Chrome to use the platform WebView on any Android version supporting loading native libraries. Are there OpenGL limitations or something else blocking Chrome from running on 2.3?

I also have heard carriers generally do not allow it (i.e. software makers pushing updates without the carriers permission). I have heard the reason is basically support costs. If they have not had time to test and vet your update against all the models running on their network, and you brick a phone (or a million), those customers are calling the carriers and they are probably pissed. They wouldn't know how to contact Google even if the thought of doing so wasn't so laughable.

Microsoft manages decently (note that as a Linux user I just gagged a little bit ;-)) with the WHQL concept.