HTC EVO 4G LTE Android 4.3 update status disappears
John posted a piece earlier about how to find out when your device will get an OTA software update, and it appears that – in the last eight days – HTC has quite simply removed the HTC EVO 4G LTE Android 4.3 update, which sat in “integration” phase for the past three months.
What this means is that we’re probably not going to be hearing anything more publicly about Android 4.3 ever making it to the former flagship product, as HTC is not responding to inquiries about the much-promised software update.
For those who have been following along, HTC promised the update by December of last year, Mo Versi provided a link to the update, the update was yanked, we were told we had to contact HTC tech support to get the update, and that it was a trial-only update, voided your warranty, and the real update was still being worked on.
And now after months of being listed in integration, it’s just gone. Swept under the rug.
So that’s it, EVO owners. It appears the official end of the flagship line that brought many of us together behind the most amazing and innovative couple of phones ever released is a broken promise by HTC. Not that it will have much effect on the root community – the incredibly buggy 4.3 update has been mostly fixed by independent developers, most of which would probably be willing to supply the work back to HTC for everyone to share. But sadly there’s just nothing on the radar any more for the non-root crowd.
I’ve had my problems with HTC in the past, but it really seemed like they’d planned to do something good here and follow through. However, after six months of promises delayed, we’ve got nothing official. Just a trial update that you have to contact HTC for. The link is still live, so maybe there’s hope still, but the update is far from complete.
Unfortunately, HTC doesn’t ever give me an answer, and as the days go by I see fewer and fewer people asking what the deal is with the no-show update, but maybe if enough people pressed the issue something might happen.
Should you be interested in contacting HTC about the missing update, its Twitter handles are @htc and @htcusa, or you can contact customer support by email or chat.
When I contacted HTC via chat, I was told that customer support did not have any information on the update, nor any information on why the update was pulled from the list. It’s pretty much a brick wall when you’re a writer for an abandoned device a huge company is trying to ignore.
Is this the end? Officially, maybe. But there will probably be root support for a long time, I’m betting, as the original HTC EVO 4G just went its first couple of weeks without anything new emerging, four years after its debut.
