Last Jan. 13, HTC announced that its strategy for 2017 will largely involve the production of fewer devices to ensure its focus on the handsets and excel in what truly matters. The company, however, might also be talking about its proprietary software because its planned Android Nougat release for HTC 10 has just been stopped after several bugs were discovered.
Android Nougat Bug For HTC 10
The HTC 10 Nougat bug was first outed by HTC's German subsidiary via a Facebook post. This is quite puzzling because HTC has already rolled out its Android Nougat software as an OTA update in the latter part of November. If the bugs are serious, they must have already surfaced and are identified by now.
Consumers often take to social media if they cannot get a fix or satisfactory answer from OEMs. One is left wondering, therefore, why it has not kicked up a Reddit or Twitter storm.
And so, aside from the short announcement acknowledging the issue, the nature of the bugs themselves is not yet clear. Now that the rollout has been suspended, some sources have revealed that those hapless few who have upgraded their HTC 10 must bear the problems in their devices for a bit more time as HTC works to develop an immediate fix or workaround.
Unfortunately, the company did not provide any detail as to when the new firmware will be available. It is not known if downgrading the handset to Marshmallow will fix the issues.
Nougat Bug On Other Android Devices
To be fair, HTC is not the only OEM struggling with the deployment of the Nougat update. Even Google's customers are experiencing numerous bugs such as early shutdown and speaker noises when Nougat became available for their devices. This is the case for both Android 7.0 and 7.1.1 builds.
It is important to remember that there is no official word yet coming from HTC confirming the Nougat update suspension. So we still do not know if it only affects certain regions or if it is being implemented on a global level. HTC 10 owners should be consoled by the idea that HTC has now more time on its hands to devote on developing a fix.
It makes sense for the company to be upping its game short of moving heaven and earth considering its lackluster performance last year. HTC was only able to ship an estimated 12 million units, a massive drop from the 18 million it sold in 2015.
The company is facing strong competition from Chinese rivals so a positive customer experience should be seen as a way to maintain competitive advantage.
