It has nothing to do with numbers versus names. It has to do with the knowledge that, if I buy an iOS device today, I know I'll get the next couple of OS releases. The is absolutely not the case with Android (unless you want to deal with rooting your device).
I don't think anybody would care about buying a device with a slightly out-of-date OS if they knew updates would be coming.
Nexus branded devices do get the OS updates in a timely manner. It's part of the Google Nexus experience. This is actually one of the reasons Google keeps putting out devices...to keep their OEMs honest and moving forward. It isn't working as well as I'd like (my HTC Sensation 4G which I bought on short notice to replace my Nexus One, which broke while I was traveling, still doesn't have ICS, despite having HTC assurances that it would be out early in the first quarter; I've given up and will be rooting it), but when you buy an Android device from Google, it's gonna get the latest Android for at least a couple of years.
They could, well... gosh, I dunno, perhaps put licensing restrictions on the use of the Android name/logo, such that by referencing your device as an Android, you commit to a certain minimum level of upgrades/support for devices, vs just cranking them out with 0 upgrade path.
Google no longer supports old hardware to a certain extent. I had to upgrade phones from a Nexus One because they wouldn't be pushing ICS to it. I'm guessing that this will be the case eventually with tablets.
I particularly only purchase Nexus branded devices because of the support for the most current OS from Google.
(Just noticed you said 'for at least a couple of years')
I loved my Nexus One, and it was always on top of the latest official Android releases for about three years (and, if you wanted to root it, there's still good community support for it).
The Nexus One has only been out for 2.5 years (since Jan 2010) and it was announced back in October that it wouldn't be getting ICS because it was "too old", which at that time was still less than 2 years since its launch.
The iPad 1 will be (conservatively guessing) 2.5 years old when iOS 6 is actually released. The Nexus One was less than 2 years old when ICS was released.
iOS 6 does support the iPhone 3GS, which will be over 3 years old when iOS 6 is released.
The 3GS is not a good comparison, as it's still being sold. It may have been released a while ago, but it is still a current product. Support for the original iPad was cut off after about two years, as was support for the original iPhone — because those were both actually old (in the sense of "not current") products. They got very slightly longer support periods than the original Nexus, but they got the same sort of complaints.
"Support for the original iPad was cut off"? What? Isn't the current version of iOS 5.1.1? Doesn't the iPad 1 run it?
I'm not sure what the discontinuation date matters; if you bought your Nexus One in the short window of time Google sold it, you got less than 2 years support. If you bought your 3GS in its first year, it's still supported today, and will be in Fall as well.
Apple has already announced it's cut off. The fact that it's still supported by last year's OS is nice, but given that I already acknowledged that the support period was a little bit longer, I think you're splitting hairs here. They were both cut off fairly quickly. I think Apple gave one more release than Google did.
I mean, is the complaint that Google almost supported the Nexus One long enough and everybody would have been satisfied if it had gotten that one additional upgrade? Because my impression is that people would have felt it was short either way — just like the iPhone 1 owners did.
My feeling is, if you're going to declare the iPad "unsupported" by dint of "doesn't run operating system Apple won't even release for another 3-5 months", there's not a lot of productive conversation for us to have.
Personally I don't give Apple a free pass for not being able to update the original iPad to iOS6. They low-balled the RAM presumably to keep costs under control and now users are going to suffer for it. Delivering one major OS update is better than most of their competition but still not good enough.
Actually, they delivered two - it shipped with iOS 3.2 and has been supported with iOS 4 and 5. But I agree it's annoying that it's not supported with iOS 6, especially given that the 3GS has a slower processor and the same RAM and will be getting it.
> It has to do with the knowledge that, if I buy an iOS device today, I know I'll get the next couple of OS releases.
True that. Actually, Apple gets the best of both worlds. If your iOS device isn't up to date enough, then you're forced at that point to upgrade. So Apple wins on both ends: newer hardware is bought with a degree of comfort, and those who hold on are motivated to pony up for new kit.
I don't think anybody would care about buying a device with a slightly out-of-date OS if they knew updates would be coming.