Direct X
Whilst Matt is correct in that "developers...had to produce games that either allowed the user to choose settings, or games that automatically recognised the resources at hand" Microsoft did make things a LOT easier for games developers when they developed the Direct X APIs in the mid-late 90s.
Under Dos drivers had to be loaded into memory and there was an AWFUL lot of tweaking and configuration changing to get the best out of the latest games. This was made worse when 3D cards came out and games only really supported either 3DFX or NVIDIA or PowerVR or others.
To try and make the computer a more viable Multimedia platform (one of Windows 95's big selling points) Microsoft worked hard on the Direct X APIs which sat between the hardware and the game, so developers didn't have to program for a specific set of hardware as Direct X did all the work.
How is this relevant to the Android discussion? Because some of the responsiblity is with Google. Google should release something akin to an Android version of Direct X which developers can write for, which will then talk to the hardware and do all the work necessary to make the software work on a phone/tablet.
So I don't think it's down to "lazy coders" at all. Rather, Google are STILL finding their feet with their mobile OS is all. They just need to do it quicker.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
