The search button was optional before ICS, and will likely continue to be. The menu button will likely be handled similarly to Honeycomb (it will appear for le

The search button was optional before ICS, and will likely continue to be. The menu button will likely be handled similarly to Honeycomb (it will appear for legacy apps, and disappear for modern apps). As far as I know, manufacturers are still allowed to include hardware buttons for now, thus old phones can still be upgraded. I expect they will phase this out eventually though, thanks to the flexibility that purely soft buttons can offer. The honeycomb buttons really do work better than the ones on previous phones (fewer inadvertant taps, easier to tap when wanted, etc).