Although it’s still a bit early to call this one, HTC seems to be on the right track for recovery after a long and painful string of financial losses. The One X+ and especially the Droid DNA might have got the Taiwanese out of the serious pickle they were in, but on the flipside the Jelly Bean upgrading process looks quite bad.
It’s been a while since the last time HTC officially tackled the “Jelly Bean situation”, and, with only one phone being currently upgraded (and rather slowly), you can say things aren’t looking good for people still on ICS.
A bittersweet piece of intelligence has just come to our attention though via Twitter, where a “list of HTC devices that will get JB update” has been posted. The info comes via @Football4PDA, an infamous and rather trustworthy source of leaks and rumors that has provided us in the past with quite a number of precious and accurate pieces of HTC-related info.
This time Football seems to go the extra mile to keep the suspense surrounding the “report”, listing the devices that will supposedly get JB under their not so famous codenames. Fortunately, after doing some digging, we think we know the official names of all those phones.
First off, we have the “Evitare”, which is the recently released One X+ with LTE. The thing is this big buy already runs Android 4.1, so either Football mentions it to ensure us that it’ll get 4.2 or it’s a mistake. The “Evita” is the One XL, which is basically a regional version of the One X. This was released way back in May with ICS, so a JB upgrade is definitely long overdue.
Next up we have the “Fireball”, aka Droid Incredible 4G LTE. This was a rather puzzling (barely) high-ender that hit Verizon last summer and that didn’t prove awfully popular. Then again, with Jelly Bean butter, the Incredible could finally live up to its name.
Lower on HTC’s evolutionary chain we have the “Jewel” and “Totem C2”. These are most definitely the EVO 4G LTE and One VX. Both are carrier-exclusive phones in the US, available on Sprint (the EVO) and AT&T (the VX). The One VX however has only started selling a few weeks ago, so it might be a while until it gets the 4.1 bump.
The next three devices on the list are the Ville, Ville C2 and Valente, aka One S, One S C2 and J ISW13HT. You’re probably already familiar with the One S, while the C2 and J are more or less similar, sporting 4.3-inch displays themselves.
The One S C2 however has a 1.7 GHz dual-core CPU, while the J, as you might have guessed already, is a Japan-only mid-ranger with a 1.5 GHz processor. Last, but not necessarily least, we also have a yet to be released device on the list, the K2 or the One SV. This was supposed to come to Europe already, but for some reason it’s delayed, so there’s a (slim) possibility it could be released with Jelly Bean on board.
Now, to clarify, why did I say this is bittersweet intel? Well, mostly because of the notable absences on the list. We’ve known for a while that phones with 512 MB of RAM will not be invited to the JB party, but what about the Sensation, Desire X, Incredible S or Amaze? Sure, no one says Football’s list is a complete and definitive one, but it definitely makes you think, doesn’t it?