Upgrade Your Android… Unless You Have A G1

Do you have an HTC Dream (G1) or HTC Magic (MyTouch 3G) yet crave the HTC Sensification of the HTC Hero? HTC published a Press Release (translated to English) on their Taiwanese site announcing that HTC Sense – the company’s proprietary build of Android – will be available for FREE to owners of the HTC Magic:

From August 29 onwards, will also hold large-scale outdoor activities, so that more consumers have the opportunity to experience the HTC Hero. In addition, until early October ended October 31, where to buy HTC Magic of consumers will be able to HTC official website to download the latest software free of charge (to upgrade the market value of about NT services 1,500 million), HTC to allow more users to experience the HTC “to people-oriented “design concept, specially-made mobile phones are the perfect you.

Basically, they’ll let you download HTC Sense – previously only avaliable on the HTC Hero – directly to your HTC Magic for free and the NT $1,500 is the estimated value of the free upgrade. But there is a caveat… and a big one at that: this upgrade will only be available for HTC Magic owners in Taiwan using the carrier Chunghwa.

This upgrade could POTENTIALLY be available in other locations on other carriers, but its completely up to the carrier on whether or not to offer it. Well, I shouldn’t say completely. You know that little “with Google” branding on the back of the G1 and MyTouch 3G?

Only “Google Experience” Android Phones get that branding and you’ve probably noticed that the HTC Hero, being customized/proprietary to HTC, doesn’t have that branding included. Its unlikely Google will even allow carriers to offer these types of upgrades to devices that are distinguished as Google Experience products. And the news gets worse…

What about if you’re a G1 user who simply wants to play by the rules and get the Official Android upgrades just as Donut, Eclair, Flan and beyond as they’re rolled out? You might be S.O.L. as the internal memory of the G1 might not have enough capacity to allow future Android OS builds to hold its entirety. This was disappointingly tweeted by Android Engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru a few days ago:

So for us Android-loving early adopters who have enjoyed the robotic beginnings, it seems like we’re about to hit somewhat of a brick wall in months to come. Of course we still have a few options:

To be honest, none of those options sound too bad! When the worst case scenario is that you still have an Android phone, all is good in the world.

[Via I4U, Engadget, Thanks Carlton!]

Exit mobile version