Possible Breakthrough for android 2.1 update on HTC Hero

[andy d]

TELUS (NYSE: TU) customers packing an HTC Hero will want to sit up and listen to this. I know you

 

[trick202]

I've never really understood that comment.

What do you feel you can't do due it being closed off? (please PM me though as I don't want to hijack the thread).

I miss the notification system (especially twitter) - although I DON'T miss the gmail implementation at all.

 

[Hrochnick]

TELUS has commented that

 

[andy d]

The Ceo from HTC let slip that 2.1 would come to the Hero in may.

 

[keridel]

i honestly would have been happy with the 1.6 update. every new app is being released for 1.6 and above. they could have released 1.6 months ago but decided to wait for 2.0 then decided to wait for 2.1.

but ahh well i shall wait patiently while modding the crap out of it. i love xda-devs. lol

oh and my nexus one should be here just in time for this release (end of april) so will be a moot point anyway.

 

[Nodders]

Personally, I'd rather not be told anything, than be told an exact date when they don't know they can stick to it.

Giving a development estimate to the customers is what marketing bods want, but developers don't, as sticking to such a deadline often means cutting corners to achieve it. I'd rather they tell us, "it's done when it's done". That way we know it'll be done well. ...ish.

Perhaps, but I seriously doubt (or should that be hope) that the devs in HTC have been told to get on with SenseUI integration and to just tell someone when they have finished. They will be under internal cost/time etc constraints and there will surely be internal deadlines. Take one of these, add a month and if you're early everyone will love you. The silence though just comes across as incompetence rather than technical integrity. Particularly with the feeble hints (or none denied rumours) suggesting March, did I say March? I meant April? Who said April - I meant May. Utterly pathetic customer expectation management and however much I love my Hero I will be really have to think about getting another HTC in the future for fear that I will be promptly forgotten about inside a year when they have a new product on the cards - which is a real shame. I really hate the way the mobile phone sector is made up of corporate bullies (Apple), has-beens (Nokia), or fair weathered friends (HTC).

I agree with the chap just above ^. A 1.6 update when 1.6 came out could have taken a lot of the ranting and frothing of the mouth out of the situation (for me at least).

 

[themonkster]

I'm still betting on April 16th. I've even made a poem....

HTC Hero
Where the f@@ks 2.1
The futures not ours to see
HTC Hero

Short and to the point.

 

[JimR123]

Perhaps, but I seriously doubt (or should that be hope) that the devs in HTC have been told to get on with SenseUI integration and to just tell someone when they have finished. They will be under internal cost/time etc constraints and there will surely be internal deadlines. Take one of these, add a month and if you're early everyone will love you. The silence though just comes across as incompetence rather than technical integrity. Particularly with the feeble hints (or none denied rumours) suggesting March, did I say March? I meant April? Who said April - I meant May. Utterly pathetic customer expectation management and however much I love my Hero I will be really have to think about getting another HTC in the future for fear that I will be promptly forgotten about inside a year when they have a new product on the cards - which is a real shame. I really hate the way the mobile phone sector is made up of corporate bullies (Apple), has-beens (Nokia), or fair weathered friends (HTC).

I agree with the chap just above ^. A 1.6 update when 1.6 came out could have taken a lot of the ranting and frothing of the mouth out of the situation (for me at least).

I'm confused. Are you saying that HTC are incompetent because they haven't setup a rumour police task force to read everything on the entire internet and take down those people that start rumours (like us)?!?!?

What HTC have done is indicated on Twitter (hardly an official means of media release) that they plan to do an Android 2.x release for the Hero.

The only bad thing they have done is not deliver the goods in time with the expectations of people who have absolutely no idea what is involved with the task they have at hand. The release dates that are put out are entirely rumours sent out by people who have no official information. Why should HTC consider those people to be their bosses, and deliver to the milestones that those speculators incompetently set?

If you were a dev at HTC, you'd probably realise that developing the 2.1 upgrade is not as simple as saying, "I want it in a month". I should imagine there are quite a few intangible and unpredictable issues for them to get over. Not to mention that they probably get involved in development of the new handsets coming out. If you read the news, you'll see that the use of Android is accelerating beyond most people's expectations, and HTC seem to be bringing out new Android handsets every month. All these factors lead to it being very difficult if not impossible for HTC devs to accurately predict a release data for HTC Hero Android 2.1.

If HTC had developed a 1.6 update, that would have put 2.1 back even further, so how would that be a good thing?

It seems that some people forget that the 2.1 upgrade will be FREE. When I bought my Hero, HTC never told me that they would be doing a 2.1 upgrade, or when. So why would I ever be dissapointed? If you don't like the phone you bought, why did you buy it?

Also, put yourself in the shoes of HTC... Should we spend time and money developing something that we give away for free, or should we spend that time and money on something new which we can sell for money?

It's not like HTC have said they won't be delivering 2.1 ever.

If you're that upset that Hero isn't what you want (as you were daft enough to buy a phone you weren't happy with), then I suggest you put your money where your mouth is, and buy something else.

 

[Jaffa]

JimR123 is spot on, and the key word there is FREE, how many people go out on the day of release and buy the latest Windows or Mac OS?

Im damn sure I dont, actually I did once, and thats because Vista was so terrible, so Win7 went straight on my system

 

[JimR123]

JimR123 is spot on, and the key word there is FREE, how many people go out on the day of release and buy the latest Windows or Mac OS?...

Er, well actually, I do, but then I like to have the latest stuff (when financially possible). But, I can also respect that the good stuff doesn't just appear by magic, and good things some to those who wait, or do it for themselves. But not to those who winge about "how can I possibly survive another day without the version number on my phone being slightly higher than yesterday. Life is so unfair!".

 

[Nodders]

JimR123 is spot on, and the key word there is FREE, how many people go out on the day of release and buy the latest Windows or Mac OS?

Im damn sure I dont, actually I did once, and thats because Vista was so terrible, so Win7 went straight on my system

Yeah - who would imagine getting an OS on the first day of release?

 

[Jaffa]

Yeah - who would imagine getting an OS on the first day of release?

Yeah bad example

 

[jev]

Pure speculation of course but since I'm working in embedded software development and project management myself I can imagine what's going on at HTC R&D. It is not impossible HTC employs just a handful of developers. These guys most probably have to work on new products first - and these products usually are under strict time-constraints (after all, these new products are the things that generate the big money!). When they're done, they maybe can shift their attention to low-profit projects like porting 2.1 to an already existing phone (that is: as long as there are no high-prio issues rising from the introduction of the latest and greatest products).

In such a working environment, it's very hard if not undoable to set any hard deadlines that you can communicate to your existing customer-base. I wouldn't, that's for sure.

 

[Nodders]

Pure speculation of course but since I'm working in embedded software development and project management myself I can imagine what's going on at HTC R&D. It is not impossible HTC employs just a handful of developers. These guys most probably have to work on new products first - and these products usually are under strict time-constraints (after all, these new products are the things that generate the big money!). When they're done, they maybe can shift their attention to low-profit projects like porting 2.1 to an already existing phone (that is: as long as there are no high-prio issues rising from the introduction of the latest and greatest products).

In such a working environment, it's very hard if not undoable to set any hard deadlines that you can communicate to your existing customer-base. I wouldn't, that's for sure.

Having also worked in a development environment, the problem with the model you lay out above is that there will always be something new in the pipeline. There are probably several models in development we haven't even heard of yet. If that truly was the case then unless upgrading legacy models was programmed into their work schedule, with timelines etc, it will frankly never ever get done. HTC have declared it is being done so they must have programmed it somewhere into their devs work schedules, and if they have done that they must have laid out deadlines for them. This is pretty basic project management which I am absolutely sure HTC does. What they don't do is communicate.

 

[jev]

Having also worked in a development environment, the problem with the model you lay out above is that there will always be something new in the pipeline.

My point exactly. If it's just not a high priority project chances are resources are taken from it at will. Exactly that might be the cause why the release is dragging along. If you've got a project that has, say, 4 people working on it and at any time it can fall back to 2 or maybe even 1 developer, you don't provide deadlines to your customers. Simple as that!