I know the news on this device has been a bit of a roller coaster this past week, but it looks like that this could be the last bit. HTC has released a statement as to why they decided to cancel the update.
“We’ve heard your feedback on our decision not to update the HTC Desire HD to Android 4.0. We completely understand that this is a controversial decision.
For more background, due to how storage on the HTC Desire HD is partitioned – and the larger size of Android 4.0 – it would require re-partitioning device storage and overwriting user data in order to install this update. While technically advanced users might find this solution acceptable, the majority of customers would not. We also considered ways to reduce the overall size of the software package, but this would impact features and functionality that customers are currently using. Even after installing the update, there were other technical limitations which we felt negatively impacted the user experience.
We believe an update should always improve the user experience and carefully evaluate each update based on this criteria. While we are very aware of the disappointment from this decision, we believe the impact to user experience was too great. We recognize this is a change from our previous statement and for that we’re truly sorry.”-HTC
If this is indeed the reason, I have to say I respect the decision. While it’s still not ideal, it makes sense. Majority of phone users wouldn’t want to have to erase all of their data. Even though a good chunk of it (SMS, Contacts, Call Logs, Photos) can be backed up without too much difficulty, any app data (saved games particularly) would be erased. The only way to hold onto that stuff is to root your device and use an app such as Titanium backup. And as somebody mentioned in our new “Questions for AiC staff,” while it is kind of easy to root your device, it’s not for everyone.
So there you have it. Hopefully the final chapter of this roller coaster.