14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone carrier Verizon Wireless is reportedly gearing up to deliver a software update for one of its recently released Android handsets, namely the HTC DROID Eris. The device, as many of you might already know, has been delivered to the market with the 1.5 version of the platform on board (Cupcake), yet it seems that it will be upgraded to a newer flavor of the operating system in the first quarter of the next year.
Moreover, Big Red is also said to have committed itself to making the Google Maps Navigation feature available on this Android handset. Originally, the Navigation surfaced into the wild on the Motorola DROID, which packs the Android 2.0 (Eclair) flavor, yet Google made it available for handsets powered by Android 1.6 (Donut) shortly after.
According to the news around the web, there is a great chance that DROID Eris will receive the Android 2.0 update, or possibly the Android 2.0.1, since Google will release this software version sometime before the end of the ongoing year, but, for what it's worth, there is no solid base for that. We might very well see Verizon pushing to users the Android 1.6 flavor of the OS, which includes the Google Maps Navigation, and is in line with what the carrier promised.
However, since the first quarter of the next year is not that far into the future, more details on this update should emerge soon. In case Android 2.0 (or 2.0.1) is headed to DROID Eris, it should be interesting to see what users will be tempted to choose in terms of Android-based handsets from Verizon. Motorola DROID is appealing enough due to its MOTOBLUR UI too, yet HTC's Sense solution will certainly be very attractive on Eclair as well. Eris might not have all the features of DROID but, with Android 2.0 on board and at half the price of the latter, things might stand in a new light.