Motorola (who is still technically under Google until the acquisition by Lenovo is completed) had begun to change the way they update their core apps a little while back. Rather than rolling out changes in full fledged software updates, Motorola has been decoupling these apps from the core system and have thrown the apps into the Play Store instead. In doing so, updates to core services have been coming much more frequently and bug fixes can be addressed more easily. For the record, Android as as whole has also begun to go this route with some of the core Google apps. Google brings new software features through the apps rather than through the core system.
Anyway… it appears that HTC has decided to follow this trend as they have begun decoupling some of their core applications from Sense and are making them available in the Play Store. If you head to the app store right now and look under “HTC Corporation,” you’ll find core HTC apps like BlinkFeed and Zoe.
Personally, I love that HTC and Motorola (and I guess Google too) have decided to take this route. As I said, this should make it a lot easier for the OEM’s to introduce new features to existing service and fix minor bugs quickly. Hopefully other companies follow their good example!
