Will manufacturers skin ICS?

[dajobo]

Just wondering if we can expect to see "sense", "motoblur", or "touchwiz", over the beauty we see as ice cream sandwich. I hope not....

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[JediJesus95]

Im sure they'll do something in order to make their phones different than other manufacturers. It just wont be as extreme as it was before.

 

[cdf3]

I'm thinking they will make subtle changes that will make it user friendly to all. Allowing users to add apps and widgets from the home screen could be something they may add. Users will be confused when trying to add apps and widgets for ICS, unless they've been on the forums or have seen video footage.

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[EggoEspada]

MotoBlur might go away after awhile and TouchWiz will probably be toned down even more -- probably just apps and widgets. But Sense is here to stay and will be more bloated than ever. Look at Sense for Honeycomb -- chances is that will continue in ICS.

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[OmahaPlaya]

Yeah I don't want anymore custom skins anymore hence why I rooted last month finally.

 

[Treknologist]

I doubt they are going away. One can only hope that there will be less of a need for skins given all the improvements to Android but the manufacturers will want to distinguish themselves. I say they just make themes and widgets that are unique to their brands and leave the code alone. I won't hold my breath.

 

[ChillFactorz]

I doubt they are going away. One can only hope that there will be less of a need for skins given all the improvements to Android but the manufacturers will want to distinguish themselves. I say they just make themes and widgets that are unique to their brands and leave the code alone. I won't hold my breath.

I'm with Treknologist, make these Themes and Widgets downloadable or at least easily uninstallable. We could pick and choose what we want to keep or get rid of, customization is what makes android so great. Having the look of sense, without the excessive bloat, slowing it down would be nice. I do think that some of the OEM skins do add some good user experience, and Google might have taken note of this, planting ides for their next updated OS flavors. So the Skins are good in that Sense. I would just like to see less molesting of the Pure and innocent, that is Android. I would also imagine their would be a lot less people worried about the voiding of warranties ie Root. But alas I do not see this happening, the OEM's need to feel like they are differentiating themselves from the rest the slabs out there.

 

[goliath602]

As much as I would not want them to skin ICS, I am sure that they will. Maybe it will not be as drastic as the previous versions but one can only hope. After I got the Motorola Xoom and got to experience what pure Google really is like, I would not want to get another skinned phone or tablet. I love how you get the updates right away and it just runs so smooth. One is the reasons that I will only purchase Nexus phones from now on. I know I can root and do custom ROMs ect.. But why go through all of that hassle when I get get what I want right out of the box. Just do a simple root do get certain apps and you are set.
-End rant

 

[Officerpolabear]

I'm hoping that manufacturers learn to stop skinning their devices, or at the very least, not integrate them so deeply in the system. But I'm still banking that they will skin it regardless. You're better off running an AOSP ROM if you don't have the nexus.

 

[Treknologist]

...not integrate them so deeply in the system.

I think that's the key. If the changes they make are superficial, it makes life easier on everyone, including them! Updating the software on the phones becomes simpler and can be achieved faster. Again, we can only hope but chances are they will keep working hard at integrating their "skins" into Android.