Acer has become one of the first tablet manufacturers to specifically announce some of its devices won’t ever move beyond Android 4.0.
The company was quoted by Italian website NotebookItalia as saying that the older versions of its Iconia Tab product line will not be eligible for an upgrade to Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean.
That is, the Iconia Tab A100, A200, and A500 will all be stuck in the past. Acer recently upgraded the A700 to Jelly Bean, but it looks like that will be it.
The Jelly Bean upgrade could be considered a minor update for the Android platform, which is why it only brings the version number up to 4.1 instead of 5.0.
The most functional aspect of the update is that it looks different depending on the kind of device, so 7-inch tablets have a different presentation of Jelly Bean than 10-inch tablets or smartphones.
Among the updates are increased enhancements to the speed and performance of Android, new and sleeker widgets for the home screen, expandable notifications, and a more user-friendly app for viewing and deleting photos.
It also offers a new touchscreen keyboard for even more seamless text input, as well as new features for the ever-growing list of near field communication (NFC) devices, allowing users to tap phones together to enable things like photo sharing.
As of Google’s latest numbers reported earlier this month, Jelly Bean is powering around 1.8% of all Android devices. The market is still dominated by version 2.3, Gingerbread.
