HTC will ship all Android phones in China with Froyo on board, fuels fire for immediate update closer to home

A wordy headline, to be sure, but a pleasing one nonetheless. We came across HTC's Chinese web portal listing the Desire as coming with Android 2.2 (with Sense!) and simply had to ping the official source for confirmation. It turns out the info up there is no mistake: all HTC Android handsets shipping to China -- which includes the Wildfire and Tianyi -- will do so with Froyo preloaded, cutting down on your upgrade angst at least until the Gingerbread man comes a'knocking. HTC has also reiterated that a 2.2 update for its phones already on the market will be delivered "very soon," so if all goes well, we should be looking at a Froyo-dominated August in the land of High Tech Computers.

[Thanks, Christian]

[mayhem121 Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:27AM]

@wzh123456

how's p90x got anything to do with the post? douche.

[Geoponic Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:11AM]

I won't mention the Hero

...wait...

I just did

[genesis Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:12AM]

@Geoponic
Its okay...


Sent from my hero already running froyo

[Geoponic Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:26AM]

@genesis well...they're doing something right

[AlienSix Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:37AM]

@Androidsugly

When will you stop with this "Touch screen with trackball" shit?

You know why dont you just say whats the point of a slide out keyboard when you have touchscreen?

If you are going to troll at least troll across the board

[fpad77 Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:38AM]

@Androidsugly actually I use it regularly, its great for quick scrubbing text and it is also an rgb notification light so you can set it to glow different colours depending on the type of notification. You need professional help.

[KidRobotXXIV Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:45AM]

@Geoponic
I'm hoping this is good news for North America for Froyo to be released here sooner, rather than later. I'm most looking forward to speed improvements(even though my Evo is fast as hell already) and apps to SD.

[shokher99 Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:46AM]

@Androidsugly

That's why there are many android phones to choose from. Nobody was forced to buy the nexus 1.

[Optimaximal Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:04AM]

@Androidsugly Better than the iPhone with its stupid single button.

How the fuck am I supposed to right click?!

[Shrink Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:19AM]

@aec0

Maybe (as you sir are obviously an apple fanboy) you don't know that android phones are highly customizable. Even the big clock (with weather information integrated) can be customized. There are different (sense)looks you can chose between. So dump that.

Search is obviously one of Google's favorites. So, yeah, maybe they got a little too much into it.

@topic. Does anybody know if you loose all your settings if you upgrade or will it be incremental?

[DefPoet Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:21AM]

@aec0_is_a_ idiot
every android phone does not have the search button

[fpad77 Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:32AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is awesome Anyways
Yawn.

[fpad77 Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:44AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is ugly Anyways
Not that you'd understand or change your tune even if I did, you're like a broken record. I feel sorry for those around you.

So yeah, yawn.

[Mariohd277 Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:00AM]

@Androidsugly I guess you forgot the g1, the first android phone and had a trackball. And not to mention it just stop being sold well over a year since it first launched, talk about a success.

[BerlinerMT Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:22AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is ugly Anyways
You say that "the default design should be the absolute best default design they have to sell."
True. HTC and Android is, however, selling the phones not only with the USP design, but more than other manufacturers, also with the USPs functionality and customizability.
Marketing is about having the right products for your customers. And if you target customers who like to customize their phone, it might be better to implement customizability than a boring homescreen design (i.e. just buttons to apps, dunno which mobile OS i'm referring to) which might suit the needs (overall) of a mass customer. HTC integrated a new design, which customers can change if they want to. Some do, some don't. At least they can - which is not true for all mobile OSs.

As to the point "Apparently, htc's best design was a clock taking up half the screen with horribly looking icons under it."
Please be so kind as to allow each individual to judge by themselves what they deem ugly. I for myself quite like that design.

Just my 2 cents.

[brilldoctor Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:23AM]

@fpad77 I agree 1.x was, however 2.1 and 2.2 are quite nice, and most companies put nice ui mods like sence on

[RincewindWiz Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:49AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is ugly Anyways
You've clearly never used Android. You can add/remove/modify all the widgets on all of the home screens. You can even run completely different lauchers if you so wish, which can radically change the home screen experience.
I run LauncherPro on my Nexus One, and it gives me lots of things the stock launcher doesn't. Just because Apple force you to stick with a stack of icons as a home screen doesn't mean that all mobile phone OSes are so encumbered.

[BerlinerMT Posted Jul 29th 2010 6:51AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is ugly Anyways
If Apple does not have it, I don't like it because it has to be shit, otherwise Apple would have it.

Amen.

[Crank Posted Jul 29th 2010 7:05AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is ugly Anyways
I own a HTC Desire, just to clarify which device I describe. I don't know how other Android phones are, I just used an iPhone sometimes.
My HTC Desire has 5 hardware buttons and one optical mouse. One button is the home button to go to the home screen wherever you are and, if holding long, to open a dialog to fast switch between apps which run in the background, similar to Alt+Tab in Wiindows, because Android is a multitasking OS.
The next button is the menu button which opens a menu in the currently running program and which can also get used to show the status bar in full-screen apps.
The third button is the backwards button, used to go back in menu hierarchy, in a browser history or applications. Such things. Very convenient.
The fourth button is the search button which opens a system wide search. Or, if you currently run a browser, opens its web-only search dialog. If you are in the market app you open the search dialog of the market.
The fifth button is integrated in the optical mouse. This button gets used for taking photos, focusing and recording a video or just selecting selected buttons. The optical mouse is very handy if you want to edit some text. You enter a word, but want to change a letter in it. With the finger its difficult to set the cursor to the correct position on the first time. Therefore you can use the mouse, to move the text courser to the desired position easily. There are several other usages, too. In games to move a character if you don't want to use the accelerometer. On websites to scroll or select links which are hard to reach with the finger and you don't want to zoom in. Such things.
I don't think that any button is redundant. I use all of them daily and each button has its own function. Nothing is redundant. A dedicated search, back, menu, home, select button and the optical mouse.

HTC Sense: The widget with the clock and weather is in some way HTC's logo for the Sense UI. And I think it's ideal for starters. You get a nice looking clock with an integrated weather widget. If you do a short search on google you'll find a lot clones of it for non-HTC phones, so people seem to like it. And I also think, for the average user it's perfect to start with. More advanced user want more. However, then you can easily replace this widget with others. Especially if you installed a lot of third party tools, you'll get more and more widgets, so you'll automatically improve the home screens for your own use.
For example have I replaced this 'large' clock with a smaller HTC clock, to get more space on the first screen for my task list to see what I have to do, and also enough space for a quick note field in which I can write, scribble or draw short notes.

I hope I answered most of your 'questions'.

[Plazmic Flame Posted Jul 29th 2010 7:17AM]

@Optimaximal

Dear HTC,

You better not screw over the North American market that put on the freakin' map. Give us FroYo first, or things could get ugly.


That is all

[Jean Marc Posted Jul 29th 2010 8:03AM]

@aec0 Androids UI is ugly Anyways
Seriously how many times do you have to be banned, you could at least try to be clever we all know its you no matter which name you decide to use: Androidsugly, MicrosoftOwns, MicrosoftOwns2, Android looks Hacked Together, fragmented, BecauseItsNotGoogle, FragmentedAndroid, annoynimous, account5. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go away or at least get away from android post!

[tractor Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:32AM]

Yeah China. While we are here in Canada and US crazy for buying one of these phones they will ship China. Maybe IPHONE should get a bit more of respect from North American market. Also this idea to link the phone with the absurd charges from local companies is nasty.
HTC "I WANT TO BUY ONE OF YOUR PHONES, DO YOU WANT TO SELL ME ONE? YES OR NOT?" After the next crysis I bet you will.

[drkow19 Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:34AM]

@Plazmic Flame
The 2.2 Android with Sense is ready to go bro, for the Incredible anyways. Someone found the official over-the-air update and rooted it (Superuser.apk) and put it on XDA. I installed it on me pap's Incred the next day and well it works, performance is better (38 MFLOPS Linpack). I'm guessing the August 8th rumor for all the Droids is correct.

[Mikeserena Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:35AM]

@Optimaximal Why do you need more than 1 physical button in a touch screen phone, a properly executed touch OS only needs 1 button.My 2 cents,

@AndroidsUgly
No need to come on here trash talking other peoples phones, it's a matter of choice, Coke/Pepsi, Chevy/Ford, Dodgers/Yankees, Do you trash talk people for what they drive, what they drink Etc Etc. Get over it, Nobody is forcing you to buy a Android phone.

[BerlinerMT Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:50AM]

@Mikeserena
"Why do you need more than 1 physical button in a touch screen phone, a properly executed touch OS only needs 1 button.My 2 cents"

I think it all comes down to personal taste - some people just like to do some actions on their phone with an actual button.
It works both ways - whenever I am operating my brother's iPhone, I ask him "how the hell do I get this or that" because it is somewhere on the screen - but not always at the same spot. My gut feeling is that it is less a shortcoming of any of the systems but more a very basic design question which the different OSs handle differently.

Also, the 5 buttons are very conservative - some people need a full qwerty keyboard on their touch smartphone ;-)

[jj1814 Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:54AM]

@Plazmic Flame

you do realize that not getting Froyo sooner is not totally HTC's fault but the customizations these carriers require.

[Brick Top Posted Jul 29th 2010 12:08PM]

@Androidsugly
I would like very much to get the chance to feed you to the pigs :p

[Steven Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:11AM]

Fantastic.

[plenaghan88 Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:13AM]

yay! froyo!

[fpad77 Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:14AM]

Will be good to have more of the gang on 2.2. Performance, push notifications, flash oh my!

[Jamma Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:23AM]

@fpad77

You forgot Apps to SD :)

Also, the builds for the HTC desire also seem to include 720p video recording, and improvements to sense including 270 degree screen rotation, a better messaging app and an LED torch app

[DefPoet Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:48AM]

@Jamma
The led torch app freaking rocks on my evo. Damn thing lifts to my whole garage

[sylhety Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:26AM]

I hope to get froyo on droid x next month!

[einhanderkiller Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:40AM]

I hope to get it next week!

[brilldoctor Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:24AM]

@einhanderkiller Next week is next month

[Shrink Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:38AM]

Does anybody know if it's inceremental?
Do I loose everything if I update?

[RincewindWiz Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:51AM]

@Shrink It'll upgrade seamlessly (if the upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2 on the N1 was anything to go by) - nothing got lost (although I did have to log in to certain apps again).

[splmonster Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:43AM]

Hoping soon for my Evo... August looking to be a good month.

[KAL326 Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:28AM]

@splmonster Indeed 2.2 and Flash on the EVO will be nice. I'll finally have the web, the whole web,and nothing but the web....

[egress63 Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:49AM]

Goddamit! When will they launch Desire in India?!???

[brianM Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:18AM]

@egress63 - the "desire" is in India, just not the device! Is the Samsung Galaxy S out there yet? I want one, but am not sure whether it will ever be upgraded to Gingerbread so might just buy a used Nexus One...

[egress63 Posted Jul 29th 2010 7:07AM]

@brianM
Yeah, Samsung Galaxy is out here. It had a simultaneous release with the rest of Asia. A pity that the Samsung skin is so bad or I would have jumped the gun on the device!

[Wesscoast Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:26AM]

Um... HTC was THE REASON upgrades were such a pain in the first place!!!

If they would just ship stock Android, none of this stuff would be happen.

Congrats HTC for realizing what a pesky annoyance your software team has been to millions of users.

[mayhem121 Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:49AM]

@Wesscoast

surely its the mobile operators to blame for slapping on their custom UI as opposed to stock android?

[geekthree Posted Jul 29th 2010 4:49AM]

@Wesscoast +1

[RincewindWiz Posted Jul 29th 2010 5:53AM]

@mayhem121 The thing is that there was actually no need for them to bake it into the OS - the Sense launcher (and widgets) can sit on top of the default OS (and be turn-off-and-on-able).
The only thing they had to bake in were OS-level feature changes - and for some reason they hobbled the Bluetooth stack in doing this.

[Wesscoast Posted Jul 29th 2010 6:07AM]

@mayhem121

Come on.. Google told people at the outset, "you can skin it however you want, so it won't just be a commodity android phone" ... HTC really believes that if they shipped stock, people wouldn't want their phones, and just go for a moto, etc... that's why Sense exists!

Sadly, that differentiation is just.. a huge nuisance when it means you have to wait an extra 60-90 days to get software updates. that should be a deal breaker right there.

HTC... your hardware is beautiful. don't worry. If you ship stock Froyo (as you're finally doing in China) the phones will fly off the shelves. Just keep putting big dollars into sick hardware. Get the software people to develop sweet Android apps and sell them in the store.

[mayhem121 Posted Jul 29th 2010 6:38AM]

@Wesscoast

fair enough, cheers for clearing that up for me, i was misguided! :)

[Impulses Posted Jul 29th 2010 6:45AM]

@Wesscoast I don't know about that... I'm sure Sense plays a role in at 'least *some* of the dev time for an OS update, but carrier validation probably accounts for the biggest chunk block of time before said update is released. Look at other phones running plain Android, like the Moment or the myTouch 3G... 2.1 took just as long to get to those phones as it took to get to the Hero.

I do agree certain parts of Sense don't need to be as deeply entrenched as they are, but a lot of people also underestimate many of the Sense tweaks and improvements. Those "share" shortcuts all over the place (browser, gallery, etc.) are super handy for instance.

[Tes Posted Jul 29th 2010 6:46AM]

@Wesscoast

That's just naive. Have you used Sense? If I had bought stock Android rather than a phone running sense I would have missed out on USB tethering out of the box, the FM radio (which I use a lot but isn't a big deal for others) the tight integration of the social networks I use (again not a huge deal for some but useful to many) pinch to zoom in places where Google themselves initially were reluctant to implement it (yes HTC were the first to ship working pinch to zoom) and a host of features that meant HTC phone were already a head of the curve. I'm running 2.2 on my HTC Desire now and because of the great work HTC has done I was pretty much up to date feature-wise back on 2.1 making this update not the huge leap it could have been.

So far only Flash availability and built in apps to SD are the standout additions. It was already plenty fast and none of the other "issues" have been show stoppers.

Having good looking hard ware is not going to be enough when making a purchasing decision. We're talking multi-million dollar corporations. Be realistic.