For netbooks, Intel does the bulk of R&D and most companies just have to pick parts.  So R&D for them is typically nothing compared to what ARM typically goes through.

Also again R&D is only one of many other hidden costs of doing business
that you’re ignoring. These companies have to work harder at marketing, setting up productions, etc than many netbook makers.

All of which are some of the reasons why ARM is typically sold with profit margins more congruent with what the rest of the market normally charges versus the netbook market.  So despite a parts cost saving they still won’t automatically be cheaper than a equivalent netbook.

Really, stop clinging to just the parts costs.  There’s lots more to factor for pricing and until you do you won’t be getting realistic estimates of what they will finally be charging consumers.

So long as they use proprietary hardware and closed drivers they will always have fragmentation to deal with!

Really, just stop with either/or nonsense you keep on trying to argue.  Just because it’s not a cure all doesn’t mean it’s bad and just because they still have problems doesn’t mean they’ve failed.

There is only so much they can do, even with an alliance, and you just need to scale down your expectations and stop trying to sell the changes as miracle cures.

That is why all the major Laptop manufacturers, Acer, Samsung, Dell, Asus, Toshiba, Sony, they are ALL just now getting ready to unleash huge amounts of ARM Laptops all over the whole market. They know Intel is finished.

Amazon’s KF is just 7″ in comparison and has virtually nothing but a good screen and a good processor going for it.  Chromebooks start right now at 11.6″ to 12.1″.  Meaning more mass, more parts, more cost!

You really should stop thinking in only terms of parts costs anyway as already repeatedly pointed out.

Besides, I never said Android won’t dominate the industry, I’m just pointing out you’re wrong about them being obligated to support all hardware when they’re a software company and not hardware designers!  They can only do so much and everything else has to be handled by the manufacturers.

Even with the acquisition of Motorola won’t change this much and many still question Google’s ability to run a hardware company as well.  While Motorola has cycled between success and failure over the years.  So the future isn’t as certain as you’re trying to make it out to be yet.

So again, ICS is a step in a right direction but it’s not a cure all!

While Acer is more like Archos, they cater to the low to mid-range and not the high end like Samsung does.

So sorry but there’s more to it then you’re suggesting and you can’t ignore the facts.  If they can’t make even something like the Amazon KF cheaper than $200, using a smaller cheaper design than a Chromebook would be based on, then they’re definitely not going to be making a Chromebook that cheap unless it’s a very low end offering.

Amazon KF and Genesi netbook already show what are the present extreme limits of what they can do and those are reality, not conjecture!

Again, you’re confusing basic parts costs and ignoring all the other factors that determine pricing.

Besides, Chromebooks cost more than netbooks for a reason!  Obviously the savings of going with a free OS aren’t making up for the difference in other costs that still raise the cost of present Chromebooks above netbooks with Windows.

While you ignored the fact netbook hardware can more easily get away with reduced profit margins than ARM because they don’t need to constantly support R&D for every new system and can use common off the self parts.

Never mind to get present Chromebook N550/N570 CPU performance they need to use next gen ARM processors and those cost more than $10!!!  Otherwise they have to go with a lower end chip offerings.

Being able to make something cheaper doesn’t mean they can make it as good!

So again shows they have to cut corners to get the price that low.

Never mind they can’t change closed drivers, as those must be altered by the company that created them even with those companies working with Google.  Also don’t confuse future support with legacy support.

Again, like I already said, ICS is a step in the right direction but it only really helps address fragmentation caused by the OS and companies will just not have to deal as much with those fragmentation issues but the other fragmentation issues remain and it’ll take more than just working together to fix those.

http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/oha_members.html they are all there, or not yet, I think they update the website slower than they add more members, also, they start working together months before that gets announced on the website.

All the handset, tablet, laptop, set-top-box, e-reader makers, all want the latest Android automatically, obviously they want that. Google is automating low level kernel updates, driver updates, all that through the Google Marketplace. That means all Android devices with Android 4.0 support will forever get all future Android versions beamed directly over the Google Marketplace, sometimes needing a reboot to apply changes, but not always, it’s a new way to think of firmware updates, Google beams them out.

Obviously that does not mean Google is the only one doing all the work and that does not mean all updates will come to all devices at the same time, but the idea is to make updates simpler and faster.

Even Amazon’s KF, which is basically based on the RIM PB, strips out virtually everything but the screen and processor.  It has no bluetooth, no GPS, no G-Sensor, no ports except the one mini USB, only 8GB of internal capacity, and not even volume buttons are included. 

All of which is for a small 7″ form factor, but a larger Chromebook will cost more to make.

Amazon may not be losing anything on the parts cost but the profit margin they’re getting is too small to make it economical for any other company that isn’t getting alternate revenue from matching that pricing without cutting more corners on the design.

Besides, you’re confusing just the parts cost with how much they can price these things Charbax.  Companies not only have to cover part costs but the cost of production, shipping, and marketing.  While still gaining enough profit to make it worth all the effort.

Unless production runs are very large then they have little choice but to increase the profit margin to make up the difference, as they also have to recover from the loss of R&D along with all the other hidden costs of getting the product to market.

ARM also won’t reduce the pricing that much from ATOM systems.  ATOM is subsidized by the industry, using common off the self parts that’s cheaper than constantly making custom designs.  This is also partly why they can sell them with less profit as they don’t have to make up as much R&D costs, along with the other hidden costs of bringing new products to market.

Again, it’s not just about parts cost…

Yes, ARM can use less power and cost less to make but it doesn’t change all the other parts of the system.  A 11.6″ screen will still cost as much on a ARM system as it does on a x86 system for example.

The cost difference is also not as large as it use to be with Cedar Trail, chip costs are down to $42 per unit and power efficiency has also gone up to reduce power needs to lessen the gap as well.  ARM still has the clear advantage, even going top of the line next Gen, but it’s not the only price consideration of a system.

Lowest Chromebook from Acer is priced about $349…  Switch it to ARM, put in a smaller battery and you maybe save $50-$80, which still puts you well above $200.  They’ll have to save $150 worth to get the price down to $199 and that means using even cheaper hardware and not just switching to ARM.

Remember, Chromebook makers are not Google, manufacturers have to make their own profits and few can rely on alternative revenue sources.

While we already got companies like Genesi to show what’s possible at $200 price point and they cut a lot of corners to get to that point.

So ICS will make things better, but all ICS can do is lessen the fragmentation issues to just those caused by manufacturers.  ICS is not going to be a cure all, just a step in the right direction.

Google doesn’t provide Android out of box with all the drivers and customized code for every piece of hardware it could be possibly be installed on.  Android is a light weight OS and the only way it can remain light weight is to let each manufacturer make the alterations needed for their specific hardware themselves.  Otherwise it’ll become large and bloated like many desktop OS. So Google can only support the common basic ARM specification part of the hardware, and they’ll be limited to emulations of most proprietary hardware anyway and that’s never 100%.

Besides, even if ICS somehow can run on all hardware as is doesn’t mean it’ll run well on all hardware and each manufacturer is responsible for its own hardware!

ICS will just solves things like native support for all screen sizes and resolutions, along with other things that just the OS are responsible for supporting… 

It’s also not just FUD that many companies are worried about Google/Motorola.  There is a difference from being worried and panicking, but they would be foolish if they weren’t at least concerned as this is the first time Google has had an invested interest in the hardware of any one company and it’s foolish to think Google won’t take advantage of this even a little bit!  Google want Motorola to succeed after all, and this is a very competitive market.

All Google has to do is let their programmers talk with Motorola’s programmers and engineers and you got an automatic advantage.  At the very least they can get the hardware optimized for the new OS release faster than the others and eliminate the grace period normally needed to customize and optimize a new OS release for their specific hardware.

Since Google/Motorola now don’t have to worry about any patents or closed drivers between them like all the other companies still do.  So Google/Motorola would have to mess up not to benefit from this merger.

You would have to also ignore all the talk of many of these companies starting to invest in alternate OS options to think they aren’t at least a little concerned!

Really, we’re talking about business here.  The only loyalty they have to each other is towards mutual profit potential, but they’re all in it for themselves and another reason they customize is to try and leverage a advantage for themselves.  All of which won’t change just because Google releases ICS.

Nobody is afraid of Google and Motorola. That is just FUD. Samsung, HTC, LG, Dell, Acer, Asus, Sony-Ericsson etc they all love Android 100% and they fully trust Google and they know Google is buying Motorola to destroy Apple and Microsoft in those bogus patent lawsuits, totally bogus. The Motorola hardware division might be sold back unless Google can find a way to use most of those hardware engineers to develop open source hardware, basically advance the global Android hardware design ecosystem, design better reference designs and exactly that, dedicate ex-Motorola engineers into working to optimize Android for each of the ARM Processor platforms and optimize them further for each hardware.

While the Motorola staff can only help Google with Motorola Hardware!  They don’t have access to the proprietary hardware of the other companies either!

In fact, the reason some companies are starting to invest in alternative operating systems besides Android is because they’re afraid Google will give Motorola products an unfair advantage.

While there are reasons why it can take months before a company pushes out a new Android release well after it’s official release.  Google was never set up to fully support all the possible hardware combinations ARM allows natively themselves.  So they only support the basics and provide the tools for all the companies to customize and optimize as needed.

This is also why even identical hardware systems can still perform quite differently depending on how the manufacturer was able to optimize the OS, which wouldn’t be the case if Google had already done so.

Besides, the makers of those chips would be better at optimizing code for their hardware than Google anyway.

Even the Amazon Kindle Fire, at just 7″, no keyboard, and pretty much little else but the IPS screen and 1Ghz dual core processor. Only comes in at $199 because Amazon makes all its real profits from the services it provides.  While making little to no profit on the hardware.

Add that Chrome OS, due to the lack of hardware optimization, relies quite a bit on CPU performance.  Something only the next gen ARM chips have a hope of rivaling a dual core ATOM and even then performance could be better.

Means either price will remain closer to $300 or the performance will be lousy at $200.

Even a company like Genesi that makes products primarily for poorer nations can barely make a basic $200 10″ ARM netbook.

Besides, it’s hardly like every ARM device in the world has to automatically be updated to ICS and those other companies aren’t relying on older versions of their hardware anymore than the big name companies.

Along with the rapid End Of Life cycle for most ARM devices gives little reason for Google to even entertain legacy support. While also there is nothing stopping those companies from continuing to use older versions of Android.

http://www.smartkeitai.com/android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich-demoed-on-nexus-s-video/

PS: Sorry for may poor english but I think I make my self understood

I dont know if leaked videos with nexus s phone who run an early developement version of Ice Cream sandwich is real or fake but the hardware specs are low enough to support Android 4.0

Also , mabe if they make the 4.0 step ,  the Honeycomb sources will be made available to public .