OK, so I'm not sure if this has been addressed(probably has) but does anyone know exactly why all the development that the Optimus Black has seen cannot be utilized with our phone? Everywhere I read it says that the only difference in the phone is CDMA vs. GSM. Does this make the software that different? And on the same note, why did/does that phone get so much attention and this phone is being almost completely ignored until now(thank you so much PlayfulGod!) Anyone wanna fill me in or give me their opinion?
My two cents:
1) GSM = Larger customer base, and a larger pool of potential developers.
2) Very few of us have the knowledge (or time) to figure out how to make the relatively small changes necessary to get Optimus Black development working on the Marquee.
3) The documentation on the inner workings of Android just isn't there, and what is there is not very helpful with all the fragmentation and customization. Manufacturers are not cooperative in helping us understand what they've implemented on these devices and how. This makes it very difficult to learn the ropes of developing for Android and particularly for specific devices. The devs that are working on this stuff are smart, dedicated, experienced, patient, and stretched thin (and probably come from a background working a lot with Linux).
4) Development can be dangerous/costly. I personally bricked the crap out of a Transform Ultra trying to help with some development experiments, in spite of the fact that I had clockworkmod and backups. Whatever we tried just ruined the boot/recovery sector (which it should NOT have done) and Samsung refused to help.
Basically it just takes someone who is absolutely determined to develop something, smart and brave enough to actually do it, and kind enough to share it. There just aren't a lot of people like that in the world.
On a more conspiratorial note, I suspect that manufacturers (and Google to a lesser extent) are not terrible crazy about the Android development community because it gives them less control over devices, results in their bloatware being removed, gives them a little extra work when something goes wrong, and it exposes just how half-assed they are in putting these devices together. Look at the Transform Ultra. The touchscreen doesn't work properly, and if an independent developer figures out a way to fix it, Samsung has to admit that the issue is real and were too lazy/incompetent/greedy to take the time to fix it, and released a defective product into the market. As far as the Marquee goes, if someone figures out why the performance increases when plugged into USB, this will expose the fact that LG never took the time to optimize the software interface with the hardware and/or found a defect in the device that they put a band-aid over by artificially limiting its power.
