Confirmation of Froyo (2.2) Update for Incredible?

[BurtReynolds]

With the current deal on the Incredible, I was thinking of pulling the trigger on ordering one.  My only question is whether or not anyone knows for sure, or have heard from a Verizon rep if the Incredible will be getting the 2.2 update? 

I also wonder if VZW would cripple the update somehow, as it is will include a wireless hotspot feature, and I am sure they aren't happy about it being so easy to circumvent their overpriced tethering plan. 

[mattc3325]

Yes their will be an update to 2.2 by HTC not verizon.thwy will have the wireless hotspot feature.

heres the article

http://www.brighthand.com

[budone]

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mattc3325 wrote:

Yes their will be an update to 2.2 by HTC not verizon.thwy will have the wireless hotspot feature.

heres the article

http://www.brighthand.com

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Be aware Verizon CAN and most likely WILL block that option

[gpa111]

Im 100% sure they will either block it or make you pay for it.

If you have the tethering plan I would imagine you could use it.

[mattc3325]

you could always ROOT your phone and that will take care of Verizon taking out or charing for the feature. but i'm sure they will tell you that rooting voids any warranty on the phone.

[onewithshadows]

I am unfamiliar  with rooting as when I get my incredible it will be my first android powered smart phone. After rooting can you not always just got back and reset the phone to its original state so that they wouldn't know that it had been done? Obviously having a wireless hotspot feature would be pretty cool considering I just got my wife a new laptop.

[gainesville]

Oh good,  that means that when mine ships on June 1st, ..... or 9th,......  or 11th, ...  or 14th.... or July 1st, or, or.....  Oh sorry, I digress, perhaps it will come with 2.2 already uploaded... (if it does come)

Also, since VZW doesn't have a problem with the Palm Pre Plus providing WIFI hotspot service ( they even use it as a selling point for the phone)  I would expect them to allow it with Android phones.

[mattc3325]

With Rooting not sure on it, never attempted just know the basic theory of it. Maybe I will give it a try, I just know if you screw it up "the load files", too bad then that is it for your phone.

I believe Verizon will allow hot spot if they have it on other phones it only make since but as far as an update being done by the time we get our phones who knows!!

[cellphone1]

I heard that they allowed the hotspot with the Palm to get rid of excess inventory and it will not be allowed at some point without paying for it. So if people bought this phone be prepared to pay for this feature in the future. Nothing good lasts forever!!

[jc1175]

VZW is actually ran by Motorola which is getting the 2.2 update as of today and the HTC incredible is a hold over even though HTC has it ready and implementing on lesser phones and the evo Verizon needs to stop sucking up to Motorola their phones are not even that great meanwhile the consumer is the one who is getting screwed thanks VZW.

[fezzik]

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jc1175 wrote:
VZW is actually ran by Motorola which is getting the 2.2 update as of today and the HTC incredible is a hold over even though HTC has it ready and implementing on lesser phones and the evo Verizon needs to stop sucking up to Motorola their phones are not even that great meanwhile the consumer is the one who is getting screwed thanks VZW.

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LOL.  If in deed Motorola Droid is getting the update today then it is because the Motorola Droid is a Stock Android phone.  The Incredible is loaded up with bloatware so that the update took longer at HTC to get Android 2.2 ported to the phone with Sense and whatever unnecessary junk they added to it that has to also be ported one piece at a time.  The lag between the Moto Droid and the Incredible getting updates has to do with all the junk.  Or I guess if you enjoy it Sense UI.  The time in testing is the same if it works and if it doesn't then the extended time comes from fixing bugs. 

[Xarthos]

Fezzik that is so obviously wrong.   EVO is a sense phone very simliar to the HTC Incredible and they have 2.2 up and running as an OTA already.  HTC finished the update and we are waiting on Verizon to push the OTA. 

[fezzik]

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Xarthos wrote:

Fezzik that is so obviously wrong.   EVO is a sense phone very simliar to the HTC Incredible and they have 2.2 up and running as an OTA already.  HTC finished the update and we are waiting on Verizon to push the OTA. 

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You weren't paying attention.  EVO is a Sense phone running on Sprint's network.  That is irrelevant to the comparison between the Droid and the Droid Incredible.  Sprint has a different testing policy than Verizon.  They may have no policy at all.  Before Verizon will approve an update it has to be tested in the field by the manufacturer and by Verizon or more precisely Verizon representatives.  If this wasn't the case The motorola Droid would have had the update the same time the Nexus one got it and the Incredible would have gotten the update as soon as HTC got around to porting Sense. 

HTC has already stated that the hold up for the phones is that the software that is loaded on each phone including Sense and every individual component of Sense has to be ported and in some cases rewritten to reflect changes in the operating system "to insure that you get the most benefit out of the changes".  This along with the testing processes of the networks is what the hold up is.  That came from either the CEO or an official spokesperson of HTC recently.  That was part of the announcement that HTC hopes to have all of the phones that they are going to update updated by Christmas then they went on to provide the previous explanaition. 

The EVO and the Incredible are the two most popular HTC phones on the market.  I would imagine that development was done first on the HTC incredible because of two things, first higher sales, and second Public relations difficulties resulting in lost sales to Motorola over long lead times.  Those two things would mean most companies would jump on working on that phone first.  The hold up is in testing and certification.  Sprint being a smaller company may very well allow for faster approvals and less time required in field for certification for many business reasons.  It allows them to move faster and be able to brag about having updates out fast, and it keeps them in public eye.  They still don't have much of a network and far fewer subscribers so they can rush things through in an effort to grow.  Verizon being the largest network has two major interests.  First is network security.  They have a great reputation for having the best most reliable largest 3G network available and they want to keep it that way.  Second they can take more time making sure things are right before they are released because they aren't hurting for customers.  Now that they have a good phone selection and a strong Android presence they are growing even more than before.  It is in their best interest to make sure that they maintain a certain level of stability because that is what has built them into what they are. 

So it would stand to reason that Sprint could get their update out faster even if their update was second on the block.  Now another factor comes in to play in the speed thing as well.  HTC doesn't port the updates automatically.  They create updates at the request of the network.  So Verizon and Sprint had to request that Froyo be ported to their phones.  It would stand to reason that Sprint would have an interest in being first to make that request because they want the EVO to be regarded the Android flagship phone.  They are in this mode of we did this first we did that first.  They want to appear the most mobile.  Being the most mobile means you make mistakes like WiMax which I hope doesn't just die because it could have incredible uses but it just isn't the most efficient phone technology and with the rest of the world going LTE it makes sense to go that route to make roaming easier.  With WiMax Sprint has to build their own entire network with absolutely no roaming agreements.  They don't have the resources to make that viable no one really does.  Their CDMA network has relied heavily on agreements with Verizon.  I would expect a few updates to their update over the next few weeks. Verizon may have waited until the Froyo release was stable to request updates. 

Finally Verizon won't push the update.  The update actually comes from a third party software company.  In the past we have had issues with updates being pulled after the initial push because of errors made by the third party.  Also if we are currently in an OTA rollout of the Motorola Droid (which by nature of being an earlier phone and easier to port) would have come through testing first assuming there were no issues in either development then we would have to wait until the rollout for the Droid is done.  The reason the rollouts happen in stages instead of all at once is because of the amount of data pushing through the system.  If all the phones updated at once and by that I mean either all of any given phone model or worse all the Android phones for which there is an update available then the data system would crash under the load.  Look at what happened when the first 3 models of iPhone were released.  AT&T experienced crashes after each one because they weren't prepared for the load.  Multiply that by approximately 178MB and well it wouldn't be pretty.  So if the Droid is getting their OTA's now which from what I can tell they are, then expect a little wait after that for the difference in reworking the more complex software and we should be next in line.   Droid x, and Devour  are going to take some time, according to some reps the blur related software on those phones have slowed down their releases. 

So to sum up, Sprint and Verizon aren't the same company and have different rules and policies about updates, HTC confirms that the Sense UI slows down porting Android Updates to their phones, Sprint has business reasons to try to move faster and to jump sometimes before there is solid ground to land on because they are smaller fish in a tank with sharks, and if you are waiting on Verizon to push the update stop because the update won't come from them, when it is finished it will be sent to the company that is managing the rollout and they will have to get it ready for pushing, they have messed that up before. 

We already know the update is right around the corner.  It may already be done and is just waiting for the Droid update to finish which would make sense being an older phone, the original Verizon Droid, and stock OS, the quintessential Verizon Developer phone etc, etc, etc.  If you thought we wouldn't wait in line behind the Droid you were mistaken.  In November/December when the next OS is coming out though who knows.  The Droid most likely won't get it, the Incredible probably will but by then won't be much of a priority, newer more exciting phones with more customers will be updated ahead of us.  The way the market is going and statements made by most of the phone manufacturers the days of stock Android phones will very soon be over.  The manufacturers at least seem to see the need to be over so from now on who gets the update first will depend on who is newest and most exciting and/or who has the most active users and which bloated user interface is easist to port.  Motorola may end up winning that one since they seem to be doing away with the bulk of blur and just including the features that people liked. 

[AZSALUKI]

i don't think it should be tough to figure out either. the moto droid got 2.1  before the eris i think? so i would only assume that moto devices will get 2.2 before htc devices? maybe i'm thinking too simpliceticly (if that's a word?) about it?

[TheGreatOne]

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AZSALUKI wrote:

i don't think it should be tough to figure out either. the moto droid got 2.1  before the eris i think? so i would only assume that moto devices will get 2.2 before htc devices? maybe i'm thinking too simpliceticly (if that's a word?) about it?

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Who knows who knows....it could be that way or the other way around.

[AZSALUKI]

well fezz...i "tried" to give props to your post and it was removed by the powers that be. i simply thought it was a nice breakdown, but apparently am not allowed to post that as i guess it was "off topic" or "violated" something. i guess the mods don't get that "lol" implies that we may actually have some fun while discussing issues? 

[fezzik]

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AZSALUKI wrote:

well fezz...i "tried" to give props to your post and it was removed by the powers that be. i simply thought it was a nice breakdown, but apparently am not allowed to post that as i guess it was "off topic" or "violated" something. i guess the mods don't get that "lol" implies that we may actually have some fun while discussing issues? 

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Well I thank you kindly.  Wonder why that wasn't allowed.  Usually if they don't like something they pull it.  Just more complicated than people think and we go through it for every update.  When Droid went from 2.0 to 2.0.1 to 2.1 it happened every time.  Lots of arguments and accusations.  The policies are in place for a reason.  The time frames may be arbitrary but the reason for them is real.  What other networks do has nothing to do with what ours does.  Also there have been bugs found because there has been a few different versions on the table so far.  The most recent one seems to be good but we shall see.  You can bet they want to close up a few loopholes.  Personally I would love a Stock Android version.  There are very few Sense features that I like much.  The people widget is one I would miss but I am sure there are others. 

[Shan279]

If that was true then why is MOTO X getting pushed back to September?! {please keep your posts courteous}  I've owned 2 crappy Motorola phones and this is my second HTC phone which both have proved far superior. 

[beasy30]

Is the update going to be pushed through automatically?  Or do I have to hook my phone up to the computer and go that route?

[TheWizKid95]

 if i dont have Froyo on my phone by Saturday 11:59 pm i am going to install the Froyo ROM from xda!

[Please keep it clean - Thanks!]

[rondistar]

It should be pushed to your phone. We do not do smart phone software upgrades in the store for many reasons, one of which is the sync that occurs when a smart phone is connected and updated on a computer, another is the time it takes would not allow the store to do all of them before the next upgrade rolls out.   Not to mention how fast the hard drives would fill up with every customers personal info.  This is why the smart phones are set up the way they are to either receive ota (over the air)  updates or as with Bb (blackberry) the customer hooks their phone up to their own computer to run the update.