HTC has announced that it will be unable to meet its 90-day update goal for Android 5.0 Lollipop. Last year, HTC began the HTC Advantage program for HTC One devices, which promised that major Android updates would be released within 90 days of the final source, among other perks. The test of this came when Android 5.0 Lollipop was announced, which marked one of the largest Android updates to date.
HTC managed to make the cut for the Google Play, Developer and unlocked versions of the One (M8), but the U.S. carrier versions are still lacking their taste of Lollipop. The One (M7), which is also a part of the program, has yet to see Lollipop on any variant except for the Google Play edition. HTC says that the delay has stemmed from issues with Lollipop, which HTC has been working to fix and incorporate into its build that also contains HTC Sense.
The company has said that carrier testing is underway and that Lollipop should be available very soon, making it close to the 90-day deadline, but not quite reaching it. Frustrating as it is, it would have been a much worse situation had HTC pushed out buggy, unstable software updates. It’s better to take a few extra days and iron out the problems than it is to get a half-baked update.
Show Press Release
Delivering major Android updates to our flagship phones has been a top priority for us because, just like you, we love having the latest and greatest software as soon as possible. By setting the 90-day goal to deliver these updates a few years ago, we have driven change within our own company as well as in the industry. Today you are seeing updates much sooner even from other OEMs. We also brought a new level of transparency to the process and the ability to track the status of the updates in real time when we launched the software updates page on HTC.com, which is also being replicated by other OEMs.
In the spirit of continued transparency, I wanted to share a quick update on where we’re at with our Android Lollipop rollout process. We’ve been working hard in the labs with Google and our carrier partners ever since the code release and are making great progress so far, but if you’ve been following the progress of this rollout you will know that Google has had to address several issues with this release. We’ve been diligently working to fix some of them on our end and incorporating Google’s fixes as quickly as possible, but despite everyone’s best efforts some carrier versions of the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7) will not meet our 90 day goal, which is February 1st. While we are committed to delivering within this time period, we are even more committed to ensuring these updates result in an even better experience with your device because that is what the updates are intended to do.
We are continuing to push hard to deliver Lollipop to all devices as near the 90-day mark as possible, but we are taking every precaution to ensure the rollout is right and we aren’t willing to compromise at your expense. As of today, we’ve rolled out to Google Play, Unlocked, and Developer Editions of the HTC One (M8). We’re still working through the testing process with our partners and hope to have good news to share soon. We promise to keep you updated in real-time as additional devices receive the update on our Software Updates page and @HTCUSA on Twitter.
Thanks for your patience and feel free to reach out on Twitter if you have any additional questions.
Android Match
Post a Comment