Every manufacturer slips when they release new top segment hardware. The real problem is Android being too free in terms of support. Google should have set requirements for distributors regarding updates. But then again Android wouldn't have grown this fast this big if they did. Now they try to fix the segmentation with mentioned line ups and work arounds (Google Play Services or something, releasing new core features as installable applications) but I doubt they will ever fix the core problems completley as it makes Android as what it is.
> Google should have set requirements for distributors regarding updates.
Google could have done that as a condition of getting the proprietary apps and Google logo while maintaining unconditional openness in AOSP. And while you are right that they might not have had that leverage in the first year of Android as a commercial product, they could surely have started before now.
I think they could have done better. While the UX issue is annoying, the killer issue for enterprise deployments is timeliness of security updates. They could have had a pledge with incentives that would result in update SLAs with OEMs. Then customers could count on getting updates within a certain interval.
The Google Play Editions have announced updates, right after Nexus got their's, so that's something. But even outside the Google Play store, I would like to see some kind of formal commitment from OEMs. I have been pretty happy with ASUS for updating, but their schedules seem to slip.