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Vodafone has started pushing out the Android 2.2 Froyo update to the HTC Legend — and amazingly, it seems to have appeared before HTC has updated unlocked handsets.
In a surprising turn of events, the Vodafone and XDA Developers boards have lit up with delighted Vodafone users expressing their surprise at receiving the Legend update, as well as unlocked Legend owners wondering what the hell has happened.
Poster Johnny Truant (we’re guessing it’s not his real name) wrote on the Vodafone board, “Confirmed here too, [Android] 2.2 running on my Legend right now. Pleased as I am to have 2.2 — and it does all appear to be working — this smells all wrong. Since when did the branded firmwares come out first?”
Mr Truant added that the release seemed to be only for Vodafone-branded phones in the UK, France and Germany.
He also wrote on the XDA Developers’ board that Vodafone seems to have learned a lesson on sticking its branded junkware on the update, which many people had been complaining about.
“There isn’t any. Well, there isn’t any more than before. There are the pointless Vodafone apps like ‘Music’ and so on (which obviously don’t work), plus the start-up animation, but apart from that — it’s very clean. I was expecting some kind of Desire/Galaxy S style branding spamathon, but it seems Vodafone have learnt a lesson on that front.”
Mr Truant believes the release was accidental on Voda’s part. We don’t think this is the case, as HTC already said it would be rolling it out around this time. But we’re stunned that Vodafone got the update out first. This is something of a coup for the firm, and will mean owners with unbranded handsets will look at contract owners with much less smugness.
At a guess, Vodafone may have noticed and listened to the very vocal complaints about the length of time it took for owners with locked handsets to receive updates, compared to people with unbranded phones. A quiet word in HTC’s ear may be why Vodafone HTC Legend contract owners are feeling so happy today, and could well be something we see again in the future.
Virgin Media HTC Desire owners also received their Android 2.2 update today, according to Eurodroid, well behind customers of other networks.
