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HTC says it will miss its deadline for updating HTC One to Android 4.4 in U.S. and Canada

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Back when Android 4.4 was originally announced, HTC promised its users that the flagship HTC One device would receive the update within 90 days in the United States and Canada. Today, however, Jason MacKenzie, President of HTC Americas, said the company will miss its deadline, as it still needs a little while to complete the update. “We won’t miss by much,” MacKenzie said, saying that the updates should still only be a few weeks away.

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.

Android update timeframes have gotten quite a bit better over the last year, but they’re still not perfect. Even though this was a self-set deadline, it’s still disappointing to see HTC fail on its flagship device. Motorola has been the best about updating its devices recently, even beating some Nexus devices to the punch with Android 4.4.

The full letter from MacKenzie is below. Hopefully the HTC One’s update is not too far away.

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 Americas

Go Seahawks!

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Email: Chance@9to5mac.com

Chance currently writes for both 9to5Google and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys.