Rogers' HTC Dream and Magic to be deprived of Donut

While I normally like to point out that the role of Canadian mobile carriers is to be the hilariously evil Bond villain that makes the US vultures look good by comparison, in this case the fact that the press release comes from HTC leads me to believe RogersMary.

Why so surprised?

Rogers never provided any sort of upgrade for any of their Windows Mobile phones neither, no matter how badly needed they were.

Buying unlocked, contract-free handsets is the way to go in Canada.

Another Way to Force People to Buy Newer Device and Seller older

Business Tactics

Canada has no good mobile providers. They are all high-handed, arrogant, choice-limiting, feature-crippling wallet leeches.

I tried to buy a phone without a contract and couldn’t find one from Bell, Rogers or Telus for less than C$199. Meanwhile, in New Zealand I can buy a (basic GSM – voice, txt and Opera Mini web) new, full-price phone for NZ$59 (C$40). Canadian have to pay to make calls and receive them. In most countries, only the caller pays. I could go on and on. Canadians are very poorly served by the Gang of 3 who dominate mobile phone services.

Good plan Rogers. I’m sure all the Android customers that you’re cheaping out on in an attempt to make them purchase new hardware are going to stay with you. I’m 100% sure not a single customer will be calling Rogers to cancel their service a couple minutes after their new Nexus One is up and running on Wind.

Rogers, Rogers, Rogers…….

Well the Revolution did not last long, further proof that all you want is our money and really don’t care about your customers…….

I am embarrassed that i once again have been bent over a barrel by Rogers….

I guess Rogers really does not care to catch on the android wave and support their products they would just rather sell us new phones. Well all this negative publicity in regards to android will cause new users to look elsewhere due to the lack of support and spend their money with another company. I have no desire to support Rogers when they will not even stand by their own products.

They wonder why people are look for alternatives to the big 3 ,well this is just one of many reasons why.

This experience has left me a much more educated buyer and i will not spend my hard earned money with robbers anymore.

1.6 should not even be a question they should be working on getting 2.0…..wow too much……

HTC, HTC, HTC

Well all the blame cannot go to Rogers either cause at the end of the day this is a HTC phone and is obvious they just want to sell handsets but by allowing carriers to not provide updates for the phones they certainly are hurting their image and will cause android users to look at others brands as well.

Google, Google, Google

Great OS but…….You need to learn a thing or two from the iphone and that you need to rollout these updates across the board on these phones just not ones you brand and make. Failing to do so is a major mistake and will cost you in the long run. While android may be taking off and getting a larger market share how do you think the sales are going to be in a few years when android owners are tired of being handcuffed from the carriers and manufactures of your phones by poor support….I love my android phone but i tell you a unlocked iphone is looking allot more attractive to me specially in the long run….

In the mean time putting pressure on Rogers and all the negative press they are going to receive on this and loss of revenue may force their hands to get them off their cheap lazy butts and do something about this issue…

All i have to say is thank god my contract is up this summer ….nexus, wind, dave, public will all get a chance to get my money since Rogers has proven all they care about is your money not customer satisfaction.

I am always confused when people say that HTC doesn’t have access to 1.6 or they don’t have sense working with 1.6 because the HTC Tattoo runs Andoid 1.6 and has Sense. From my perspective as an Android developer the main feature of 1.6 is the ability to develop for different screen resolutions, 1.5 apps were strictly HVGA, 1.6+ apps can special case things like QVGA for the Tattoo or WVGA for the Droid.

When 1.6 was released I was quick to update all of my apps on the market with 1.6 versions, but as was previously mentioned apps built with the 1.6 SDK cannot be used on the 1.5 phones which is quite a few phones, so I have since released new builds of my apps using the 1.5 sdk because while the 1.5 built apps don’t special case the different screen resolutions at least 2.0 is smart enough to scale my apps for the droid but unfortunately I can’t support QVGA screens with 1.5… /sigh Oh well I feel supporting all of the HVGA 1.5 devices (Hero/Eris/etc..) is more important than supporting the qvga devices.

The multiple versions of the Android SDK that are installed on the variety of phones being released have definitely caused the developer quite a few headaches

Sense UI would be a welcome addition, but it is still 1.5. It provides a slick UI and some neat features, but like I posted previously, as app’s start requiring 1.6 even Sense UI users will be left in the dark (albeit a nice, slick dark!)
yeah! http://bit.ly/htc-dream-preview

Whew – boy am I glad I’m on sprint, and got my Hero. Waiting patiently for my 2.1 in 2010.

I had been considering rooting over the last month or so, now that’s done it for me. We’ll see you on XDA and then the Wind network gang.

Hi – I was reading the latest comments and wanted to provide an update, based on my conversation with HTC.

The OS must be customized by HTC to work on our network. We have asked for it. HTC has indicated that they had not planned to upgrade the Rogers Dream or Magic to 1.6. However, they agreed to investigate all options and get back to us.

If you are running version 1.6 on either the Dream or Magic, you are running a generic, unsupported version. It hasn’t been customized or tested for our network so it might not work as advertised and Rogers has no way to offer customer assistance for these devices.

I hope this helps clarify.
-Mary

@RogersMary, I appreciate your attempt to give some comfort to the disappointed and very angry Rogers Magic/Dream customers. But, let me ask you this. Are you sure about what you’re saying??? Are you an Rogers insider and have legitimate info ??? If no, then please do not add to the anger of people here who are left with no hopes…

This is b/s. I bought 2 Magics in September /09, knowing release 1.6, a much better integrated software had just been released in USA, Canada to follow in 6 months. Now it seems I am stuck with obsolete software for a 3 year contract. Unacceptable to a 23 Year customer of Rogers.

so this then includes the ‘HTC Eris DROID’? and how come the Eris is rarely mentioned anywhere amound 1.5 and even htcs phones?