It turns out that one of the best Android phones on the market will be stuck in the past for a few days longer. HTC announced on Wednesday that the Android 4.4 update will not reach the HTC One in time to cover the 90-day deadline that the company set late last year. According to a letter sent out by HTC’s Jason MacKenzie, “the software development process does not always follow a linear path and we know today that we will miss our self-imposed target.” Although the HTC One won’t get KitKat in January as was originally planned, MacKenzie believes the rollout will begin within one to two weeks. The full letter follows below.
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 having 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 you 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 the 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. Supporting our customers is a major priority for us and we thank you for your support of HTC!
Jason Mackenzie
President, HTC AmericasGo Seahawks!
