7 HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat Update Predictions

7 HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat Update Predictions is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

The HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update remains missing in action despite promises of a roll out within the month of January. With the update still in testing and mystery surrounding the roll out situation, it’s time to make some bold predictions in regard to the unreleased HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update.

Several months ago, Google announced Android 4.4 KitKat, a brand new Android update that replaced Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Android 4.4 KitKat is an incremental upgrade, bringing some user interface tweaks, a few new features and under the hood improvements to Google’s Android user base. While Android 4.4 KitKat is small, it’s still an extremely important update, particularly for non-Nexus users.

Manufacturers use updates like Android 4.4 KitKat to deliver updates to their unique user interfaces, HTC’s Sense and Samsung’s TouchWiz for example. They also tend to offer a number of bug fixes to device owners. In the case of the HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update, it will be delivering both.

Way back in November, HTC made a bold promise. It claimed that the regular old HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update would roll out within 90 days, meaning, before the end of January.

HTC confirmed that it will be delivering Android 4.4.2 KitKat and the new Sense 5.5 to HTC One owners in the United States. Android 4.4.2 comes with the latest bug fixes for Android 4.4 and Sense 5.5 will offer some big improvements to HTC’s Sense. Users are also hopeful that the update fixes some of the device’s camera woes.

As January comes to a close, we still haven’t seen HTC confirm any specific release dates nor have we seen any HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat updates roll out.

With that in mind, we want to offer up some bold predictions about the HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update for users in the United States and elsewhere.

Roll Outs Soon

It’s now January 23rd and nothing has changed. We still don’t have any firm release dates in the United States and the only thing that we know for sure is that the updates are in testing. Still, we get the feeling that HTC is going to deliver soon. HTC’s Jason Mackenzie still says that the end of the month is the “target” and known HTC leakster LlabTooFeR says that the international variant will get the update “soon.”

HTC recently updated its software update page and it now says that the updates have moved beyond integration and are now in the certification process. This means that HTC is crossing its fingers and hoping that it receives carrier approval. U.S. carriers are notoriously strict so it’s possible that we could see some delays.

There are still a couple of days left in January, plenty of time for HTC to roll out all four major updates in the United States. However, given how spread out the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean updates were, how recent the Android 4.3 update hit the Verizon HTC One, and some of Mackenzie’s recent comments, we’re not feeling overly confident.

Still, we expect at least some of these roll outs to take place in the near future.

Staggered Release Dates

As far as the HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update release in the United States is concerned, we’re expecting staggered release dates. What we mean is that we don’t expect carriers to all roll out their updates on January 31st. This almost never happens with Android devices and we’d be shocked to see it happen here.

Instead, we expect a staggered approach where carriers roll out the updates on separate dates. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of carriers share a date but any more than two would be a complete surprise.

Verizon HTC One Android 4.3 Update Last

Verizon’s HTC One Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update was last, by a long shot. We aren’t expect a repeat here with Android 4.4 KitKat but we are still anticipating the Verizon HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update coming in last.

The carrier is well-known for its slow Android update process and even though the update sits in the certification stage, there is a good chance that Verizon will strike it down and create a delay.

Swift Roll Outs in U.S.

Once the roll outs get started in the United States, we’re expecting them to finish within a reasonable amount of time. HTC updates typically don’t lag like Samsung Android updates do and we think that they’ll likely finish up within a week of the initial roll out, that is, unless there are major bugs on board that require HTC to halt the process.

Roll Out Stretching Into March

As for the overall roll out of the HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update, remember there are devices outside the U.S. that are still without the software, we’re expecting it to stretch into the month of March.

There are some carriers, like Vodafone, that have confirmed the update but still haven’t entered testing. There are others that simply haven’t confirmed anything at all. We’re looking at Telstra in Australia.

So, while many carriers should see it roll out in January or February, we wouldn’t be shocked if the roll out extended into the month of March.

Bugs

This is a major Android update and most, if not all major Android updates come with bugs on board. HTC and its carrier partners will do their best to weed out the major problems but we should see some Android 4.4 KitKat troubles arise once the software settles in on the HTC One. What those bugs will be, we don’t have a clue, but we expect forums to fill up like this one did after Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

Few Surprises

Finally, don’t expect many surprises. The Android 4.4 KitKat update should bring exactly what HTC says it will bring: Android 4.4.2 KitKat and Sense 5.5 in the United States. It should also come with a number of bug fixes which will vary from carrier to carrier.

What we’re saying is that HTC One owners should not expect the software to deliver a surprise like Sense 6 or a completely revamped version of BlinkFeed and Zoe. There will be enhancements, sure, but don’t expect them to receive a surprise overhaul. This is an update that will likely be exactly what users expect it to be. Incremental and a bridge to Sense 6 and the next version of Android.

7 HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat Update Predictions is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.