HTC will perform an application cull on the HTC Desire in order to make room for Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It announced its solution on Facebook after yesterday backtracking on its initial decision to leave the Desire out of the upgrade loop.
Its statement reads: "To resolve Desire's memory issue and enable the upgrade to Gingerbread, we will cut select apps from the release. Look for status updates starting next week. We apologise for any confusion."
HTC is keen to get a few more details into the public arena after a glut of negative press surrounding this issue. This doesn't end speculation over exactly how the memory issue will be resolved. Will users get to choose which apps they can do without? Is Sense at risk? Will HTC continue to dribble out status updates or bite the bullet and let us know exactly what's going on?
Though we don't despise the HTC Sense overlay, it would be a victory for Android if all the extra bells, whistles and bloatware were removed and users had complete control over what they wanted to keep on their phone.
Ironically, some Facebook commenters are predicting users will be unhappy when they see a few of the problems Gingerbread (apparently) brings to the Desire. "You won't all want Gingerbread when it ruins your Wi-Fi," moans one user, adding, "Many people have told HTC but they don't seem to care and insist it's a new 'feature'." Others, having shunned HTC, are now boasting about their new Samsung Galaxy S 2 phones.
We wonder what Google makes of all this. Most people are laying the blame squarely with HTC for putting such a feeble amount of memory into a high-end phone that's only a year old. A few commentators, however, have suggested the debacle hurts the overall Android brand.
The problem stemmed from HTC underestimating Android's future memory needs when it designed the Desire. If it can learn from this mess and push out more high-quality phones and tablets in the future, its fans will quickly forgive it.
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Comments 15
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MikeBuck_1 16 June, 2011 12:16
Thats fine, i'm fine losing Footprints, Peep and Teeter
cmwilson6 16 June, 2011 12:26
Desire internal memory situation is pretty awful. Main issue being that the Facebook and Facebook for Sense apps take up so much room.
Frustrating but it's people complaining that has forced HTC into this situation. What ever happened to the good old days of accepting you have a year old phone when you have a year old phone?
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 12:40
"What ever happened to the good old days of accepting you have a year old phone when you have a year old phone?"
24 month contracts are what happened. The Desire has only been out about 14 months so most people with them will still have them for another 10 months at least. And there will be people who will have the phone for a lot longer if they've got it more recently.
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 12:40
The article says 'Android 3.1 Gingerbread' as I write this! And here I was thinking that the Gingerbread version number was 2.3 :D...
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 13:12
Android is such a fail! I've got Andorid Honeycomb 3.1 on my tablet and although the UI is an improvement its as sluggish and slow and have to reboot the tablet often. At this moment iOS provides the best experiance and as a new owner of Windows Phone 7 I can honestly say the only viable competitor is now Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 on tablets.
weirdstuff 16 June, 2011 14:37
Windows 7 is like the older versions of the iPhone: some glaring omissions but the things it does do it does with buttery smoothness and panache.
Can't wait for the Mango release late this year...
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 14:50
To everyone out their with a stock htc desire, its very easy to upgrade your phone with one of costume rom's out their. Just Google it and you'll find a wealth of information out their.
I'm using gingervillian and the speed improvement is amazing!
Nick Hide 16 June, 2011 15:03
@Anonymous 16 June, 2011 12:40
Thanks for pointing that out, we've fixed that in the text.
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 15:14
am i right in thinkin that the problem here is that the internal memory is too small, many people have expanded using SD cards, but HTC couldn't release a software update that would require you to rely on external memory.
So they're releasing the Android update with some apps not included to make sure it's small enough to download and install on the internal memory. In my mind this means that the 'missing apps' could be downloaded from the market and installed on the SD card, right?
or have i missed something?
weirdstuff 16 June, 2011 16:36
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 15:14 - Sounds about right right o me.
Jed McInnes 16 June, 2011 17:23
Bloatware!? Sense is one of the most elegant user interfaces I have ever seen
anonymous 16 June, 2011 21:57
Others, having shunned HTC, are now boasting about their new Samsung Galaxy S 2 phones.
A little biased?
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 23:22
HTC please drop the google stuff like gmail and maps and street view as well as facebook, flash player and the htc live wallpapers all of which can be downloaded from the marketplace if needed.
also teeter, you tube twitter widget, teeter, peep and footprints could all go and would not be missed.
Anonymous 16 June, 2011 23:29
my brother just got the S2 and believe me. I am jealous as frick!!! i think google needs to take a look at itself a little bit here. the android market is FULL of apps that CANNOT be moved to SD. I was mocked when i said the lack of internal memory is worrying but believed what i read about that 2.1 onwards means you can transfer apps to SD so this wont be an issue. HTC are massively to blame too for this. None of the blooming apps are transferable to SD. Very annoying. All this talk about rooting makes no sense to me. I've read a few of those sites and understand very little about what to do. The only problem here is memory. I have an 8gig card that is just sitting in my phone with 6gigs available doing nothing! Grrrrr. Windows Phone & Nokia please rescue me!!!
Anonymous 17 June, 2011 08:04
What a load of knackers.
The desire is still one of the best phones around. Very fast, loads of features. That's on froyo. I'm happy with froyo, gingerbread is still too buggy.
The galaxy s2 is a cracking phone, but sense on the desire in my opinion is better than touchwhiz on the s2.
As for Windows phone 7. Please. It's not a contender yet.
Finally the app developers are to blame for lack of app 2 SD support not HTC. However apps running on SD card will not run as efficiently as those on the phone, I agree larger storage was a massive oversight but by no means a failure.