14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan-based mobile phone maker HTC Corporation is reportedly gearing up for the release of the Android 2.1 update for yet another appealing device it delivered to the market with Google's mobile operating system on board, the HTC Hero. The company already revealed plans to make the move, but so far hasn't announced officially when the update comes.
However, the Android 2.1 update schedule for the HTC Hero has just emerged into the wild, courtesy of a member of the XDA-forums. The time table shows when the update will land on the European version of the device, and it seems that the move has been already confirmed. As the XDA-forums member notes, those interested in checking the validity of the info can “call HTC direct, ask them when the update is due, and they will confirm.”
Here's what the update schedule looks like: HTC EU (Nordic/Greek/RUS/UKR/SA) 2010/4/2 TMO – UK TMO 2010/4/16 UK/ES Orange 2010/4/16 TMO – DE TMO 2010/4/16 SFR signature Orange 2010/4/22 ZA(Vodacom) HTC 2010/4/22 H3G UK H3G 2010/4/22 HTC BE HTC 2010/5/4 HTC TUR HTC 2010/5/4 TMO – PL TMO 2010/5/10 TMO – HU TMO 2010/5/10 TMO – MK TMO 2010/5/10
As one can see from the table, the first Android 2.1 updates for the HTC Hero should arrive on April 2, with the next batch set to be delivered two weeks later, on April 16. According to a recent article on phandroid, these would actually be the dates when the Android 2.1 is released online, yet carriers will also offer the software solution as an OTA update, a few weeks later.
Currently, HTC Hero owners are stuck with the Android 1.5 operating system on their handsets, as the Taiwanese handset vendor did not release any other update for them since launching the device. It initially unveiled plans to provide them with an update to Android 2.0, but changed its mind and jumped directly to Android 2.1. However, the new OS and the HTC Sense solution that will come with it should make users forget the delay.