A new report indicates that HTC will skip Android 5.0.2 for the HTC One M8, which will go straight to 5.1 Lollipop at some time in the future. The older HTC One M7 may get 5.1 as well, despite a recent announcement that it will not.
HTC just released its brand new flagship smartphone, the HTC One M9, and among its drawing points are the Android 5.0.2 operating system software loaded out of the box, along with HTC's Sense 7.0 UI. That combination will apparently be exclusive to the brand new HTC One M9 handset, according to a new report.
A recent tweet from @LlabTooFeR reads: "None of the current devices will get Android 5.0.2 + Sense 7.0 (except M9) ... Sense 7.0 become available with Android 5.1 only on some models."
The models are not specified but are thought to include the HTC One M8, HTC Desire Eye and HTC Butterfly 2.
Whether the HTC One M7 will receive further Android Lollipop OS updates at all is still up in the air as the device falls out of the two-year window under which HTC guarantees the latest updates for its smartphones.
However, customers were not happy when HTC previously announced it would not be releasing Android 5.1 Lollipop for the One M7. Owners of the handset were angry because they felt that the various bugs and issues in their current version of the OS would not be properly addressed if the 5.1 update was not released.
Product Management VP at HTC Mo Versi recently tweeted: "I heard you all on M7 5.1 for Carrier versions. Many of the fixes are already in our current SW, but understand your concerns. Stay tuned."
Now that it appears the device will not be receiving Android Lollipop 5.0.2, it may be more likely that the HTC One M7 will in fact receive an Android 5.1 Lollipop update. In the past, the company has reversed decisions to not provide a software update due to user complaints when it agreed to update The HTC Desire Eye to Gingerbread 2.3 despite previously stating it would not.
The Google Play Editions of the HTC One M7 and One M8 both recently received the Android 5.1 Lollipop software update.
