Folks, just to provide you with an update from my end, I just spoke with someone from the Office of the President and have asked them to re-instate my original contract termination date, prior to me doing a hardware upgrade when I got the Magic.
Prior to getting the Magic, my contract expiration date was April 2010. I performed a hardware upgrade sometime in May/June 2009, which extended my contract to 2012. As it stands now (and I still need to verify with Rogers.com Wireless Services section), my understanding is that my contract expiration date is set back to April 2010.
Here is the reason why I chose this route.
1). I am hoping (and I really am) that Rogers will be able to work something out in regards to Android 1.6+ with HTC. Yes, this is a huge assumption and their implicit word against explicit actions. I am betting that within the next 6 months, I will be able to have a better understanding of where Rogers stands with their Android update fiasco and what they are going to do about it. If they come up with a solution which I am happy with and works in my favour then I will have no problem staying with them.
2). On the other hand, if they are unable to come up with a solid roadmap/plan, then I will be happy to walk away and port my number over to another provider, be it Bell, Telus, or Wind. Hopefully these providers have Android roadmaps and devices (if they don't already). Moreover, this way I am free to walk away at the end of April 2010 without having to pay a penalty of getting out of the contract prematurely.
3). In January 2010, when Google releases Nexus One and as more information about their strategy comes to light, I will be in a better position to buy the hardware outright if it works to my benefit and never have to worry about signing a contract and being able to go with either of the providers on whose network the Nexus One works.
All this while keeping myself away from getting pushed into a corner in regards to Android application development objectives and goals. So these are the three primary reasons why I decided to have my contract termination date re-instated to the original. The person I spoke to from the Office of The President understood that I signed a contract with the understanding that the updates will be provided and this was not so. She also confirmed that while they do not have any idea of a timeline for the decision on Android 1.6, they do understand that this issue has gotten very high visibility due to the noise that has been created in the past few days and they are working on trying to come up with a strategy.
Again, take this with a grain of salt, this information is neither confirming nor denying anything. It is simply their "safe bet" statement. As such, don't shoot the messenger, it was my duty to make all this information available to you all and I will be putting this information up on my blog as well,
Puleen Patel Blog Archive Attention Rogers HTC Magic / Dream Users.
Cheers!