Buying every existing phone that is sold in reasonable volume across all major networks in all major countries and testing them individually on each release is probably not the testing plan I would go with.

I didn't say that they should have tested it on every target, just that they didn't. They accepted the risks and were bitten by it.

The problem wasn't really lack of testing, unless you expect these devs to test their app on every extant Android device and all future devices as well. The problem is that they assumed they could rely on the behavior of the Android system on one device to apply to another, and that turned out not to be the case.

Even worse, the device in question ("Fascinate") was apparently just a Verizon-branded version of the Galaxy S, which probably gave them a false sense of security if they tested their app on the Galaxy S.

But, as you touch on, there do seem to be some things they could have done differently here. Checking the last time the logs were sent, not connecting unless there is data to send, etc.