HTC has made a lot of headlines over the last 12 months, mainly due to their meteoric rise in popularity and their ever increasing profit margins. Nobody can argue what's responsible for this, either - Android. HTC was one of the first companies to truly embrace Android, bringing the first Android phone to market and then working with Google to create the Nexus One, the high-end phone that became Google's poster child for Android.
HTC didn't stop there, though. They took the Nexus One and created their own, specialised version of it. A nearly identical device with a few subtle changes, most notably the addition of Sense, HTC's customised Android overlay. That device was the HTC Desire and it was critically acclaimed the world over, as well as a phenomenal success. If you had to narrow down HTC's recent success to just one device, it wouldn't be the Nexus One, it would be the Desire. The phone was so popular that HTC quickly spawned off several sister devices - The Desire HD, the Desire Z and the recently released Desire S, with future devices likely to use the Desire name as well. It would seem that the Desire name has almost become a brand in itself.
Back in February, HTC announced that the entire Desire range would be receiving an update to the latest version of Android, version 2.3, also known as Gingerbread. The Desire S would launch with Gingerbread, then the Desire Z and Desire HD would receive the update with the original Desire getting it last. This was a little unfortunate, but at least the phone that started it all would be getting the update eventually, right? Well according to HTC's Facebook page yesterday, this wasn't necessarily the case:
"Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect from our phones. However, we’re sorry to announce that we’ve been forced to accept there isn’t enough memory to allow us both to bring Gingerbread and keep the HTC Sense experience on the HTC Desire. We’re sincerely sorry for the disappointment that this news may bring to some of you."
That was yesterday, though and after a few hundred Desire owners expressed their discontent at the decision, HTC have changed their mind. Again. Today, this is what they had to say:
"Contrary to what we said earlier, we are going to bring Gingerbread to HTC Desire."
So there you have it! The phone that, arguably, started it all will get Gingerbread after all, despite apparently not having enough memory to handle it. Did someone at HTC make a mistake when they stated that it couldn't be done, or did some HTC engineer have a stroke of genius? Considering that a working Gingerbread test ROM for the Desire leaked out a few weeks ago, the safe money is on the former. However thanks to this leak, it does mean that if you're willing to tinker with your Desire, there's no reason why you can't enjoy Gingerbread right now.
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