HTC One KitKat updates for US and Canada

Jerry Hildenbrand

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From Jason MacKenzie at HTC:

Team HTC One,

We?ve always been inspired by our customers, and because of our legacy as a pioneer of smartphones, we are fortunate to have the most technology-savvy, discerning, and passionate customers in the industry. While we continue to be a leader in Android innovation and have done "OK" with software updates, we recognize that "OK" is not good enough.

Starting with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) last year, we set out to be a leader in delivering the latest software and were successful in quickly rolling out Jelly Bean for the HTC One. With the release of Android 4.4 (KitKat), we embarked on a mission to push KitKat to our HTC One customers across the US and Canada within 90 days of Google's official release of the software.

Additionally, we felt it was important to be as transparent with you as possible, which is why we launched the Software Update page to let everyone know how the process works, and to keep you up-to-date with our progress. We?re excited by the conversation this has generated in the HTC community.

As we approach the 90-day mark, we are getting closer to delivering KitKat and the finish line is becoming more clear. We are currently in the certification phase across all of our carrier partners in North America and they share our enthusiasm for getting this software in your hands. That said, the software development process does not always follow a linear path and we know today that we will miss our self-imposed target. The good news is that we won?t miss by much as it shouldn?t be more than one to two weeks to complete each of the carrier versions of HTC One.

The challenge we gave our teams, in cooperation with our carrier partners, has taught us a lot that will allow us to improve on our upgrade delivery in the future. We remain resolved to provide timely updates and to be transparent about the process and status of our efforts. Support of our customers is a major priority for us and we thank you for your support of HTC!

Jason
Go Seahawks!

More on the blog!
 

Topgonzo

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That is huge news to me coming from the man.. Htc is really trying to deliver. Thank you for posting this.

Sent from my HTCONE using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
 

Darth Mo

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If it's just a week or two he should have blamed the Polar Vortex.

It has certainly caused chaos around where I am...
 

madlaw1071

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How exactly was HTC being a leader when they launched the One with an older version of Jelly Bean whereas other flagships launched with more current versions? SMH
 

ahaxton

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How exactly was HTC being a leader when they launched the One with an older version of Jelly Bean whereas other flagships launched with more current versions? SMH
The S4 launched with 4.2 and significant lag issues that it took a couple of updates to improve, yet most reviews praised how super smooth the One was out of the gate. Phones take about 18 months to develop. By not refocusing their efforts on a new version 3 months before they are going to announce, but instead focus on optimizing the user experience on the code base they have. Thus the HTC One being praised for how smooth and lag free it is, while you can find thread after thread in the Galaxy S4 thread decrying lag, so much so that updates have had to be released to deal with the issue. HTC had to have the experience be as perfect as possible out of the gate, and made a calculation to do that by releasing on 4.1.2 instead of 4.2.2.
 

madlaw1071

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The S4 launched with 4.2 and significant lag issues that it took a couple of updates to improve, yet most reviews praised how super smooth the One was out of the gate. Phones take about 18 months to develop. By not refocusing their efforts on a new version 3 months before they are going to announce, but instead focus on optimizing the user experience on the code base they have. Thus the HTC One being praised for how smooth and lag free it is, while you can find thread after thread in the Galaxy S4 thread decrying lag, so much so that updates have had to be released to deal with the issue. HTC had to have the experience be as perfect as possible out of the gate, and made a calculation to do that by releasing on 4.1.2 instead of 4.2.2.

This is mostly false. The statement was made in the portion that Jerry quoted that "Starting with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) last year, we set out to be a leader in delivering the latest software and were successful in quickly rolling out Jelly Bean for the HTC One". Obviously this isnt true because as I pointed out, the One launched with an older version of JB.

It would have been better had had said, "HTC took it's time to update the One to the latest version of JB because we wanted to focus on smoothness of the user experience". He didn't say that and stretched the truth instead.

The point about lag is irrelevant to this thread, since the One launched with at least as many issues as the S4. For every lag post on the S4 side, there are at least as many "My One camera sucks because.......(purple tint, lack of detail, poor auto focus etc.) threads. So if as you say HTC strived to be perfect out of the gate then why so many camera issues? To that end, at least Sammy was able to reduce lag issues thru quick updates whereas the One appears defective from jump street requiring replacement or repaid.

For the record, my One has no camera issues and works perfectly(well, except for the whole lack of detail issue).
 

SCjRqrQCnBQ19QoYCtdl

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This is mostly false. The statement was made in the portion that Jerry quoted that "Starting with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) last year, we set out to be a leader in delivering the latest software and were successful in quickly rolling out Jelly Bean for the HTC One". Obviously this isnt true because as I pointed out, the One launched with an older version of JB.

It would have been better had had said, "HTC took it's time to update the One to the latest version of JB because we wanted to focus on smoothness of the user experience". He didn't say that and stretched the truth instead.

The point about lag is irrelevant to this thread, since the One launched with at least as many issues as the S4. For every lag post on the S4 side, there are at least as many "My One camera sucks because.......(purple tint, lack of detail, poor auto focus etc.) threads. So if as you say HTC strived to be perfect out of the gate then why so many camera issues? To that end, at least Sammy was able to reduce lag issues thru quick updates whereas the One appears defective from jump street requiring replacement or repaid.

For the record, my One has no camera issues and works perfectly(well, except for the whole lack of detail issue).

I think you are, as usual, being overly critical. HTC said starting with 4.3 they set the goal of being a leader. They didn't say that they were a leader in getting 4.2 on phones. Based on the fact that they are indicating 4.4 is releasing very soon I would say they are meeting their stated goal. When will S4 be getting 4.4 on all the carriers?
 

Darth Mo

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I think you are, as usual, being overly critical. HTC said starting with 4.3 they set the goal of being a leader. They didn't say that they were a leader in getting 4.2 on phones. Based on the fact that they are indicating 4.4 is releasing very soon I would say they are meeting their stated goal. When will S4 be getting 4.4 on all the carriers?

I agree with you. I interpreted the state as "Starting with 4.3, going forward..." It doesn't really allude to anything previous to that.
 

madlaw1071

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I think you are, as usual, being overly critical. HTC said starting with 4.3 they set the goal of being a leader. They didn't say that they were a leader in getting 4.2 on phones. Based on the fact that they are indicating 4.4 is releasing very soon I would say they are meeting their stated goal. When will S4 be getting 4.4 on all the carriers?

Couldn't tell you. Sold my S4 for my N5 leaving me with my One and N5