Android roadmap dead-ends for T-Mobile G1, myTouch 3G

donut As the Android OS continues to evolve and take on new features, Android smartphones around the world will continue to improve. Various Android development branches, colorfully named “Donut” and “Eclair,” are being prepped to bring new features to the Android users everywhere. That is, unless you’re using a T-Mobile G1 or any of the other HTC Dream variants out there. To the dismay of many a T-Mobile G1 user, it seems the original Android smartphone just doesn’t have enough system memory to handle the upcoming Donut and Eclair versions of Android. As it stands, the most recent Android 1.5 “Cupcake” firmware has already come up against the G1′s memory ceiling. With subsequent Android development updates (Donut, Eclair) expected to require even more memory, it’s unlikely that the G1 will be able to handle the extra load. As one Android developer tweeted:

“As much as I’m hoping that it’ll be possible to somehow continue updating the G1, I can’t promise anything.”

But wait, it gets worse. The latest word on some shady Asian street has HTC preparing to bring their HTC Sense UI to the HTC Magic… but not T-Mobile’s variant, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. You probably remember the Sense UI as the single most intriguing feature on the HTC Hero smartphone. The Sense UI is by far the most advanced Android UI and would take the HTC Magic to a new level of Android awesomeness. Unfortunately, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G uses the Google-branded version of the OS, which limits what carriers and manufacturers can do to the Android OS. Those limitations prohibit HTC and T-Mobile from customizing the myTouch 3G with any homescreen or application that hasn’t been sanctioned by Google themselves – it would stray away from the “Google experience.”

This is mostly bad news for T-Mobile subscribers with Android smartphones. Hardware and licensing limitations have proven to be a major bump in the Android roadmap.

Update:
We have confirmation that T-Mobile is still committed to Android updates. To clarify, the G1 will continue to receive updates to its Android OS – it’s just unlikely that Donut or Eclair will hit the G1/Dream. We’re also told that the Sense UI is not part of the “Google experience” and so won’t see any playtime on the myTouch 3G.

[Via: jkOnTheRun]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

wirecup

We already know that T-mobile shorted the HTC Touch Pro 2 for FM Radio, camera flash, the video call camera. and the 3.5 mm headphone connector. What else have they shorted, device reviewers? It was reported that MS said WinMo 6.5 would not work on any WinMo 6.1 device and ditto for 7.0 on 6.5 devices. Therfore if any WinMo 6.x devices are purchased before the end of 2010, they are dead end devices also when WinMo 7 arrives on new hardware. What an ongoing scam by T-mobile, HTC, Microsoft, and Google! T-mobile should feel obligated to inform their customers about the products they sell, but T-mobile doesn’t even provide a spec page for each of their products, just a general overview and the general features of devices. Buyer beware!
djmuzi

Every gadget gets dead-end. Thats the way it is. The original iPhone doesn’t support many features of the OS 3.0 too.
John

I’m not surprised. By the time Donut and Eclair are ready, the G1 will be two years old, and the original G1 owners will be ready for a subsidized update. Cell phones are only built with hardware designed to last two years, so why bother providing software for phones that old. This is “planned obsolense” at it’s worse.
Nobody

You sir, are an idiot.

Being out for ONE year, HTC DREAM (what the tmobile douchebags de-branded and called “G1″) is running CARRIER SHIPPED DONUT BUILD.

I use the term “carrier shipped” since the more common word “official” is meaningless in an open source context since it implies things like *hacks* and *piracy*.