It was the phone with the design which has led to what many have described as the best looking smartphone on the market. But two years have passed since the HTC One M7 launched and HTC are looking to end updates for the phone, at least according to HTC VP, Product Management Mo Versi.
Responding to an announcement of Android 5.1 for the Google Play Edition (GPE) version of the HTC One M7, Mo Versi advised that ‘Only the GPE version of M7 will receive 5.1. Our target is early April. Thanks’. A followup question asking ‘what about “Updates for at least 2 years”?’ led to the answer: ‘we’ve updated the M7 for up to 2 years from an OS standpoint’.
The full exchange can be seen on Twitter:
@kennymaclean Only the GPE version of M7 will receive 5.1. Our target is early April. Thanks.
— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 18, 2015
While some manufacturers supply updates to their phones for longer (or shorter) periods, Google’s general unspoken rule of thumb has actually been 18 months for updates. Indeed they have actually kept the Nexus 4 going a lot longer with the Android 5.1 update due to come out soon.
HTC has kept the One M7 going for two years now and Android 5.0 is a good place to stop. HTC will most likely remain active killing any bugs for a while, but active development on an Android 5.1 update for a phone now two years old is probably not in their best fiscal interest.
Will this affect your perception of HTC? Is it a good decision to stop updates here?
