[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
A lot of good points, but money talks in the world of business. Samsung, fubar'ed the press release that's all; everyone is thinking it, nobody is saying like Samsung.

Voting with our pocketbook, is correct. But we should have all walked when they locked the bootloader, don't you think?

All you have to have is ONE OTA come down and 'lady I'll get rich' looses access to the pictures she took of her dead husband. And lets say he died in Iraq, just to pour it on. So here's the grieving widow, of a fallen American hero, on national TV crying her eyes out that ACER pushed ICS and now she's lost the only pictures (oh and lets say a few videos) of her late husband.

Can you say multi-billion dollar lawsuit! If they push ICS it will not be pretty, and this is why no OEM will push it or make it available to an existing customer base. That's why they locked the bootloader so you cannot install ICS. Follow the money, you want ICS your bootloader is locked so cough up the cash for a new tablet, because with the locked boot loader you aren't loading anything. And they can walk into a court of law and state such 'Judge, we're not responsible for customer's loss of data because we locked the device. And as the evidence will show, the plaintiff unlocked the device causing the damage and loss of her photos and videos'. Meanwhile, 99.95% of the people won't know how to unlock the boatloader so they'll just buy a new one.

Bottom-line: Manufacture's are locking the bootloader to keep you from installing ICS, Netflex, Skype, or anything else that comes down the pipe. Oh, you want the NFL package, then let me sell you this NEW a500 with it already installed. Oh, you just want to install it on the one you already own? Sorry not supported. Since your bootloader is locked, good luck loading it!

What you will see is more and more apps that only run on ICS. Also, inside ICS will be LIB's in the /system/lib folder required to run certain apps. With a locked bootloader, you cannot add the required Lib's yet alone a OS. More proof, look at how many OEM's are now doing their own market place? If ACER locks you into ACER's market place then they make the millions. Again, follow the money. They are locking these to keep you contained inside their box and to make you buy and upgrade, period. There's no money in hardware, IBM said that what 15 years ago, HP this year? ACER wants to lock you into their market place, run only their applications, etc. That's what's happening here and why ICS will be something they can make money on. Therefore, don't hold your breath on any free ICS.

Lastly, ICS requires more memory, more video, more horsepower to run. Nvidia has already released a whole new architecture for ICS. Now you want the real bad news? They are building in additional security, and they claim that it will be impossible to root. Well, we all know how those claims go, but software exploits just might be a thing of the past. And how many of us are going to get out the soldering iron and paperclips to jumper in a bootloader unlock like gamers do on gaming stations?

Again, you can ***** and moan all you want, but ACER wants to make money and providing FREE ICS I'm sorry to say, just doesn't add money to the bottom line.

TD

---------- Post added at 06:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:50 AM ----------

ACER's direction - Future strategy going forward:

1. ACER has locked the bootloader to keep users from installing ICS. Therefore, they can offer a new series of devices for consumers to purchase for those wanting ICS.

2. The new Nvidia chip set and boot loader for ICS is locked from the factory from the beginning and with new and improved security and protocols. Since these tablets were never released unlocked, unlocking them will be very difficult. Only software security exploits can be used, however they can be easily fixed with an OTA.

3. ACER will deploy a new series of applications that only run on ICS with specific lib's contained in system/lib with out these library's certain applications will not run. ACER will exploit this to force vendors to use the ACER market place. If you want to watch movies, then you'll have to have an application from ACER's market place.

a. ACER will still allow general apps to be installed that conform to the ICS API, however applications that are potentially a revenue stream (for ACER) will need to be obtained from ACER's market place therefore they can charge the software vendor. Example, NetFlex application will still be free to the user, however the only version that runs is the one downloaded from ACER. Skype, the same thing. User's won't care, because to them it's still free. But to the software vendor it is not free, they will be charged by ACER to place their application on the market place.

I can go on and on. I do not work for ACER, nor claim to have any inside information. This is just my opinion gathered from various chats and reading articles on various sites. It is sort of the 'wild-wild-west' of the tablet world right now and everyone is trying to do a land grab. If you don't think this is possible then just look to the past. Remember AOL, Compuserve? You were locked into their network and they controlled it, but you don't have to look there. Look at the Kindle Fire, Lenovo, etc etc. They are all trying to be the next Apple, including Google with their Motorola division that they purchased.

anyway my 2 ¢

TD

---------- Post added at 06:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 AM ----------

Good point in this post, but it's just a reporters opinion of what they said happened when consumers pushed back when Samsung announced it would not offer ICS. Again, all they said was they'd re-think it. If you read the ACER press release and CEO J.T. Wang from their conference. You can see ACER is going after software, and services, he says it over and over again and locking the bootloader is part of their strategy.

You have to really look at nVidia’s Tegra 3, and the architecture behind ICS. Trying to make it run on today's hardware devices isn't worth the engineering effort.

Then you have MS and Intel breathing down your neck with Windows 8. Not to mention the ARM architecture wanting a piece of the Windows 8 action. As Scotty would say, "Captain, I can't change the laws of physics" and current platforms don't support ICS. Meaning, it will be about as affective as a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

TD