When TELUS HTC Desire HD users found out that the device would not see an official upgrade to OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, nor Jelly Bean, it caused quit a stir. The first reason was “due to poor device performance during testing.” TELUS noted in an email to us that “the decision to suspend the software for this device was made by HTC, not TELUS.” The message was later clarified by HTC that “After extensive testing, we’ve determined that the current version of HTC Sense with Android provides customers with the best experience on the HTC Desire HD.”
Users really didn’t accept that response and even went to the extent of starting a petition to bring ICS to the device. Now, HTC has once again taken to their blog for a final word. HTC says they tried everything to make ICS happen on the Desire HD, but to the size of 4.0, storage limitations, plus “other technical limitations” resulted in a “controversial decision” that “negatively impacted the user experience.” Full statement below:
We’ve heard your feedback on our decision not to update the HTC Desire HD to Android 4.0. We completely understand that this is a controversial decision.
For more background, due to how storage on the HTC Desire HD is partitioned – and the larger size of Android 4.0 – it would require re-partitioning device storage and overwriting user data in order to install this update. While technically advanced users might find this solution acceptable, the majority of customers would not. We also considered ways to reduce the overall size of the software package, but this would impact features and functionality that customers are currently using. Even after installing the update, there were other technical limitations which we felt negatively impacted the user experience.
We believe an update should always improve the user experience and carefully evaluate each update based on this criteria. While we are very aware of the disappointment from this decision, we believe the impact to user experience was too great. We recognize this is a change from our previous statement and for that we’re truly sorry.
So if you’re not one of the “technically advanced users” that HTC speaks of above, looks like your Desire HD will stay at Gingerbread.
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