HTC Commits to Keep “Flagship Devices” Updated for Two Years Going Forward

 htc logo

HTC held a Q and A session on Reddit the other night, and, as usual, they were very transparent in their software update plans for the future. They wasted no time in announcing that they will keep all North American flagship devices up to date for two years.

“We don’t have a perfect track record regarding updates along with almost every phone manufacturer, but we’re dedicated to bring more transparency to the process and doing our best to deliver updates as quickly as we can. Given the immense resource requirements for updates we can’t solve all our past issues, but today we are making a commitment to support all new North America flagship devices going forward with all major Android updates for 2 years after their release date.”

That is a very bold and vague statement. Bold because no manufacturer has ever made such a blanket statement before. Of course all manufacturers have announced specific device update plans right before they release the update, but never before has a manufacturer stated that all flagship devices will receive major updates for a given length of time. It is also vague because HTC does not define what they classify as flagships.

Still, something is better than nothing, so I will take it. At a time when Motorola is pushing system apps to the Play Store, so they can update user facing features when and how they want without carrier interference, this is a crucial and necessary announcement from HTC. As subsidies disappear in the US and smartphone prices still average well over $700 at launch, users want to make sure they can get the most life out of their device. There is no worse feeling then when you spend that kind of money, and six months later it is announced that your completely capable phone has reached it’s end of life simply because the manufacturer wants to move on.

An announcement like this will definitely sway my purchasing decision. Why should I spend $700 on the latest phone to simply have to root and ROM it just to get the latest Android update? I like rooting and running custom ROMs, but for $700 I should have a fully functional and completely up to date OS for at least two years. Chime in and let me know if this will sway you, or if it will take more than this to earn your money. And, as always, if money is no object to you, please send some to me via PayPal.

Source: Reddit

About Gavin Hall

Gavin is an awesome husband and a fan of anything that makes beep beep noises.

Comments are closed.