Quote:
Originally Posted by mjschmidt
Hmm... I've seen a similar sentiment expressed in the comments of my blog, are you, perhaps, the same person? Either way, I'll reply here with what I've said there, and elsewhere.
1. HTC has told us officially and repeatedly that they do not create Android OS updates unless the carrier requests it. Let me say that again, and more plainly... HTC told us officially that Rogers would have to request an update before HTC would make it. So, yeah, we have to put the pressure on Rogers because otherwise we won't get anything. Rogers had NO CLUE what Android was when they first got it, they didn't even know 1.6 existed until we asked for it! (No, I'm not making it up. If you want, I'll dig up the thread with all the proof).
2. We have no clout with HTC. None. HTC does not care one bit what the end users think, because WE don't buy the phones from them, ROGERS does. Rogers on the other hand, as the direct (and bulk buying) customer of HTC, does have some clout. Let me assure you that when Puleen, Don and I met with management (in person) from Rogers, it was intimated that high-level management at Rogers were in direct talks with their counterparts at HTC to get this done.
So, sorry, but you're wrong. It may be HTC that actually pumps out the hardware and software, but we have to deal with ROGERS, not HTC.
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This doesn't jive with RogersMary claiming
HTC has said no further updates for the Magic. If it was as simple as Rogers asking for an update from HTC, why wouldn't HTC supply a paying customer? So it seems the truth may in fact lie somewhere in between, or that your little meeting with the Rogers people may not have been as enlightening as you may have thought, because I keep seeing just this kind of conflicting information. If I am wrong, then it's just Rogers' way of saying "we're not selling enough of these phones anymore to financially justify an update", and frankly I'd prefer that statement from Rogers over a hot-potato blame game.
Furthermore, if it is Rogers that needs to beg for updates from HTC, a major US company, with 10x the customer base to go after, has a much more realistic basis for which to hire the required software people to crank out their own updates. Rogers' market is very small by comparison, and may not (or it might, who knows) have those resources to bring their very own software group to a platform that in Canada is still in its infancy. We simply haven't had the hype up here that so many major US releases have had that have brought Android to where it is in the US, and I'd say this would be the number one hesitation of Canadian carriers. Nobody's stepped up yet, brought out a killer phone, hyped it for months and said, "This is Android, it's the future, and we're all in!"
And no, I'm not the guy from your blog.