When phone companies say they will release a particular software upgrade, particularly with Android, there are a few occasions when it simply doesn’t happen, or is terribly delayed. Recently, the US-only Samsung Fascinate just received an upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo, many months late. The recently unveiled HTC Incredible S has been released with Android 2.2, with HTC quick to let us know that it will be upgraded to 2.3 Gingerbread by this summer. Italian Incredible S owners, however, seem to have recently received the update to 2.3.3 (to be precise). This suggests that the update will probably hit all Incredible S devices much sooner than HTC’s official ‘end of Q2’ estimate.
Obviously, the update will be pushed out with HTC Sense installed on top of Android; Android updates that feature a manufacturer’s skin will almost certainly be pushed out significantly later that stock Android. So since the Incredible S was released not long ago, why didn’t it initially ship with some tasty Gingerbread? The 2.3 update will also be pushed out to the Desire HD, Desire, and Desire Z (the Desire S already featuring it), so if you have any type of Desire, you can look forward to some 2.3. It’s nice to see the update potentially being pushed out earlier than expected; previous experience would tend to dictate that HTC software updates are a slow and painful waiting game.
“Recently, the US-only Samsung Fascinate just received an upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo, many months late”
Nearly a year late! I’ve had Froyo on my Desire since I think about May.
“So since the Incredible S was released not long ago, why didn’t it initially ship with some tasty Gingerbread?”
HTC have said so they could get it out sooner. Which seems to be true. The Incredible was ready to buy almost as soon as it was released, not so for the Desire S or Wildfire S.
“previous experience would tend to dictate that HTC software updates are a slow and painful waiting game.”
It was painfully slow on the Hero but very fast on the Desire. The Hero had to go from Android 1.5 to 2.1 though.
Any word if the Incredible S, Desire, Desire Z, Desire HD will be getting Android 2.3.3 AND the same version of HTC Sense as found on the Desire S/Wildfire S?
The Desire in particular has an old version of Sense, even older than the one on the Desire HD/Desire Z (DNLA, HTCSense.com etc…).
It’s cheeky the Legend won’t be getting these updates. The Wildfire was sold as a budget phone but the Legend was originally sold as a premium phone, like the Desire. Both the Legend and Wildfire didn’t get Froyo until months after the Desire.
It truly annoys me that it won’t get the updates. The fact that the Wildfire seemed to get more attention than the (frankly, better) Legend is also cheeky, as you say.