Google Aims for the Next Billion Users With Android KitKat - Liz Gannes - Mobile - AllThingsD
They are doing this so it will run on cheaper phones. Not much of an upgrade if you have to degrade apps to run on it.
... KitKat will also help non-Google apps run more smoothly by detecting available memory and communicating that to mobile apps. “Smart developers can degrade applications gracefully,” Pichai said. ...
