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I'm no fan of Google taking this action, but I wonder if this is a "shot across the bow" aimed not at users but at the carriers, a first step towards Google becoming the provider of system updates rather Verizon, T-Mobile, et al. Android is suffering because the carriers almost never update the OS for a phone. This results in an extremely fragmented platform, and one that is extremely vulnerable to security issues. Apple products do not suffer from this because Apple is the provider of the system updates: if your hardware supports the new OS, you can install it, regardless of your carrier. It may be that the action described in TFA is Google is attempting to put themselves in that same position.