Never say never, is a catch phrase that can always coincide with smartphones and their operating system updates. It was just yesterday that HTC’s Vice President of Project Management, Mo Versi, announced that the carrier version of the HTC One M7 – the device most customers purchase – would receive no more major software updates. This left many One M7 owners feeling a little more than hurt. While HTC was true to its promise that they would get out the 5.0 Lollipop update out within three months (okay, they were a little longer), as many of you already know there were a few bugs that were fixed in the 5.1 update. There were also a few nice additions included in the update as well.
The Google Play Edition is schedule for the 5.1 Lollipop update next month, but the normal carrier edition was cut from the update. HTC has been upfront all along with their customers, in fact, they are probably the best manufacturer out there when it comes to keeping their users informed on their intentions. Mo explained in his latest tweet that many of the fixes were included in the current version of 5.0 that HTC sent out. However, with the amount of tweets and complaints, he also said that he understood their concerns and to “Stay tuned.” HTC had promised a two-year support schedule for major upgrades and that sentence has since long past for the One M7, but many are arguing that an upgrade from Lollipop 5.0 to 5.1 is not considered a major upgrade, and fixes some pretty crucial oversights in the original 5.0 upgrade.
Mo did say that “many fixes” were already in the update they pushed out, but no specifics were given. It may be that HTC will look back and see if they really did fix all that they could or push out a new 5.1 upgrade to take care of everything. Besides the memory leaks and slowing down of devices, Google also pushed out a new feature called Device Protection that will immobilize your device without the lock code or password. If stolen, this will keep your data safe and essentially render your device an expensive paperweight. Google also cleaned up the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth quick settings area, added dual-SIM support and native HD Voice support. So stay tuned for more from Mo.