Core Data has to be the single-most difficult framework Apple offers (From their own documentation: "Core Data is not an entry-level technology.[0]"), so it makes a poor "ObjC is hard" starting point. Other than the message syntax, Objective-C is no harder to learn than any other language of it's type. Frankly, I think Android is needlessly complex, give that nearly ever app needs some combination of Activities, Receivers, Providers, etc, not to mention it's take on threading.

0. http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/DataMan...

I did not cite Core Data when I argued that Obj-C is a hurdle. I cited Core Data as an example of the fact that iOS frameworks are complex. I also didn't claim that Objective-C is hard to learn. Merely that it presents a hurdle in a way that Java does not - any given developer is more likely to know Java than Obj-C, Java is more widely used and is general purpose language for a breathtaking variety of applications, whereas Objective-C is pretty much only used to Mac OSX apps and iOS apps.

What you say about college students is probably true now, but that has yet to have an impact on the wider pool of developers. Since college Java classes often start with interactive applications, stepping into Android after a bit of AWT is natural. I predict college Java courses will soon enough acknowledge that Android is interactive Java and start with Android.

Not really. Java has been a fairly standard educational language of choice for a loooong time. Well over a decade in the US educational/college system (reaching back to before 2000).