I messed around with Android development, so my understanding is basic at best, but my impression was that the SDK provides standard interface components, storage and data access methods, etc. etc. If someone is writing software using the standard API and not doing anything crazy, and the software crashes on some phones but not others, wouldn't this indicate a failing on the Manufacturer's part to make a phone that handles Android correctly? It seems like the real issue is the carriers/phone makers screwing around with Android and not making sure it is 100% solid before selling it. The whole point of Java-type languages is that you're not supposed to care about the hardware you are writing it for, that's the duty of the JVM. So aside from maybe worrying about graphics scaling to different screen sizes, it seems like developers shouldn't be the ones responsible for compatibility.

Any reason not to read the Sixth edition instead of the fifth (the one you linked to)?