14 DAY TRIAL // The latest flavor of Google's Android operating system, dubbed Eclair or Android 2.0, has already arrived on the market packed inside a brand new powerful and attractive device, the Motorola DROID. This is the second Android handset launched on the market by Motorola, and also one of the many other phones that already arrived on shelves with various flavors of the OS, and the big question that many users have at the moment is whether older devices will also have the chance to taste the newly cooked Eclair or not.
It is no mystery to anyone that Google and its partner mobile phone makers chose to offer updates to newer versions of Android as soon as they became available, yet things seem to be a little different when it comes to Android 2.0. DROID already has the OS iteration on board, and HTC announced a while ago that it would deliver the update to owners of its HTC Hero, yet nothing is officially known when it comes to other handsets and makers.
According to the guys over at Android and Me, things are rather blurry when it comes to learning officially which maker or operator plans on delivering the Android 2.0 update to existing handsets. The piece on the news site shows that, when asked about the possibility that DROID ERIS might see Eclair, an HTC rep said the following: “Unfortunately, I do not have any information on if the DROID ERIS by HTC will receive the Eclair update, as it is dependant upon Verizon requesting it.” When inquired on the matter, Big Red delivered the following answer: “At present, we don’t have additional information on the Droid Eris that we can share at this time.”
Android and Me says that the main issue here might be the lack of drivers needed for an optimal performance on older phones. However, carriers and handset vendors seem to be working on this, and there are great chances that they will provide a final answer in the near future. Since there are two companies expected to deliver Android 2.0 updates to existing phones, others might also make a move in this direction, so the final answer is expected to be 'yes' in some cases, such as the HTC Hero, Samsung Behold II, or Motorola CLIQ.
“The Droid that was released with Verizon is 2.0. But at this moment we cannot confirm when an upgrade will be available for the Cliq. However the phone is ready to receive software upgrades to both the Google Android OS, and the Moto Blur interface, therefore upgrades are being planned, but we don’t have a release schedule, or confirmation up to which Android version it’s going to upgrade,” Motorola said, according to Android and Me. “T-Mobile is coordinating with Google to deliver Android 2.0. We will let you know when we have more details to share,” was T-Mobile's response.