String + Uri.parse() vs Uri.parse().buildUpon(). I'm probably missing something, but why does Android 2.3 have problems with using Uri.parse().buildUpon() when every one of these methods has been around since api v1?

uriparsing.java

/**
 * Works great on Android 4, and likely 3 but causes Android 2.3 to build a Uri
 * with a string value of "geo:?q=" + zipCode
 */
Uri geoUri = Uri.parse("geo:0,0?").buildUpon()
    .appendQueryParameter("q", zipCode).build();

/**
 * Works great on Android 2.3+
 */
String fullUri = "geo:0,0?q=" + zipCode;
Uri geoUri = Uri.parse(fullUri).buildUpon().build();