HTC Hero Android 2.1 update delayed by U.K. operators. HTC Desire, Legend, Wildfire to get Froyo someday

Staska  By on 29 Jun 10

Today’s is the day for some HTC Android device upgrade news. Some of them good, some not so good.

Let’s start with a year old HTC Hero handset. It’s great news for the owners of unlocked Heroes. HTC has just started pushing the second part of the Hero firmware update, which includes OS Android 2.1. If you have an unlocked HTC Hero, look for an upgrade message to arrive pretty soon.

But not so great news for the Hero’es which are locked to the operator network, at least in U.K.

It seems that you’ll still have to wait a few days, or even weeks to get your taste of Android 2.1 Eclair on HTC Hero. Pocket-lint has been able to confirm with U.K’s 3, that their Hero Eclair update will come only in mid-to-late July,  while T-Mobile promises more details on upgrade  in a few days, and Orange says that their update will come in “very near future”.

There’s also some interesting news on Android Froyo updates to HTC Desire, Legend and Wildfire. HTC confirmed that they are updating their Sense UI to work with Android 2.2. And they expect to launch the upgrades for above mentioned 3 models, beginning in Q3, 2010.

A “glass half full” guy in me wants to start jumping from joy. Q3 starts in 2 days. So one can read HTCs statements, and start waiting for Android Froyo on their Desire or Legend, from next week.

But there’s that “glass half empty” guy in me, whispering that this early Froyo upgrade talk, is just a load of marketing bull from HTC. Q3 lasts until October, and notice that “beginning in Q3”. Well, beginning in Q3, could very well be “ending in Q1 2010”, and still be true.

Looking at how long it took HTC to get Android 2.1 upgrade to Hero, and how the upgrade was rolled out in different markets, I wouldn’t be surprised that Europe will get Froyo update last, sometime in November or December. When everyone is already  looking for Android Gingerbread handsets  under the Christmas tree.

This makes me really wonder, how long smartphone vendors can maintain their custom Android UIs, as they do now.

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  • Evans Clive

    Well, after almost a year, HTC finally get it together enough to issue the update, only for the networks to get their own opportunity to delay it again. What a useless bunch. Can any of them seriously believe that they have attended to their customers need in any way shape or form. No surprise that the iPhone does so well, I know it is heavily locked down, and that you pay for updates, but at least they are released regularly. The basic functions we have been waiting for in this update should have been made available when the product was released, not after such a delay (Bluetooth for instance).

  • Thomas

    Another thing which annoys me about the delay, Orange have the update they are testing it, people are now saying it may not be released to September. So far iv'e heard about 3 dates:

    Midnight (1st July 2010)
    3rd July 2010
    and September

    Also several people have been quoted by orange uk saying it will be in the near future! They really need to sort it all out!

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