14 DAY TRIAL // Just as promised, mobile phone carrier Vodafone UK started to roll-out a new software update for the high-end Android-based HTC Desire, enabling its users to benefit from what the latest flavor of Google's mobile platform can offer.
Vodafone UK is one of the first European mobile phone carriers that started the release of this software solution for Desire, after HTC started pushing it out to unlocked devices earlier this month.
Other wireless services providers in the UK and in Europe also committed to delivering the Android 2.2 Froyo solution for their Desire units, but it seems that this won't happen until next month.
As for Vodafone UK, the company announced last week that it should start sending out the update over-the-air to its users, and that it should take about two weeks before all Desire owners receive it.
Since the HTC Desire, the same as its older brother, Nexus One, was one of the hottest Android-based devices the carrier launched this year, it makes sense that Vodafone tried to update it to Froyo as soon as possible.
One interesting thing that should be mentioned about the new OS version is that Vodafone reportedly removed all carrier-branded applications from the mix, as this post on the carrier's forums notes.
According to some of those who already installed the solution, no Vodafone applications are present on the device after the update, and all things seem to be working faster than before.
In all fairness, Google did announce that Android 2.2 should deliver important performance enhancements when compared to previous flavors of the OS. “2x-5x performance speed up for CPU-heavy code over Android 2.1 with Dalvik JIT,” the release notes for Froyo read.
At the same time, we should note that Vodafone did announce the removal of Vodafone 360 services from the HTC Desire, along with the availability of some Vodafone 360 specific applications in the Android Market.
A later update should offer customers the possibility to get the services back on their Desire units, in case they wished to do so.