I also thought so, but maybe not with mobile devices with limited memory? I always thought thought it was strange to disallow GC in ObjC on iOS, but they might have tried it with less than stellar results.
If I had to pick the single biggest annoyance with my android devices (which I otherwise love) then this would be it.
That's Moore's law for you.
I sometimes wonder how much more elegant our solutions to computing problems would become if transistors per integrated circuit stopped increasing exponentially.