TAIPEI: Taiwanese device manufacturer HTC has been very transparent about its Android Lollipop update schedule so far. But if a new report sourced to a well-known developer and HTC leaker is true, Android L’s release date for HTC One M8 owners might be a week or two ahead of schedule.
One or two weeks. That’s when the Android 5.0 Lollipop update’s release date begins for the HTC One M8, the company’s flagship smartphone from 2014, according to developer LlabTooFeR.
The timetable was picked up by PhoneArena, which mentioned how accurate LlabTooFeR’s HTC track record is. Despite his strange name, which may not scream credibility to those unfamiliar, LlabTooFeR is a well-known industry leaker to tech bloggers.
The device and tech news leaker tweeted this week “Latest news from HTC kitchen. Final M8 Android L (WWE EU) build should be in range 4.16.401.x… ETA – 1-2 weeks…”
There’s more evidence that backs up the LlabTooFeR leak, including a bevvy of leaked screenshots showing the new Sense UI on top of Android Lollipop, developer and international models of the HTC One M8 that have gotten the update, and HTC’s original list of update devices and particularly public commitment to being the first to get Android to their top devices.
There’s also a previous leak from TechTastic — whose popular interpretation that the HTC One M8 handset was slated to get Android 5.0 Lollipop update by a release date of January 3 was previously debunked by Latin Post.
While the interpretation was a little too… let’s say, “optimistic,” the leaked report still legitimately showed HTC making quite a lot of progress tailoring the new Android Lollipop update to the HTC One M8 handset. It’s just that that’s not the only thing that has to happen before you get an OTA notification on your particular carrier’s HTC One M8 in the states. Each wireless carrier has its own tests to run on the update before it goes out. That usually takes between four and six weeks.
So if you take that previously debunked, far-too-early, timetable and add an (admittedly optimistic) timetable for carrier tests and tinkering, you might come up with a legitimate release date that begins in the last week of January. But only for the HTC One M8, the first in line. And emphasis on might.
In any case, if HTC One M8 owners don’t get the update in two weeks, they are likely to see it sooner than most of us, and almost certainly before the end of February. Stay with us for more news on Android L release date leaks and rumors, along with the sane analysis we’ve been giving each hopeful piece of news.
