Today we see a rumour emerging that it might not just be Samsung that’s doing an AOSP version of its 2013 flagship, with HTC rumoured to be working on a similarly AOSP-powered version of its One handset.
Apparently this rumour kicked off last week when an HTC Rep hinted at the possibility of a stock Android AOSP version of the the HTC One, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition announced at Google I/O. Very quickly, however, HTC put the kibosh on this rumour with HTC’s Jeff Gordon denying the rumours completely.
Today, there are more rumours to stoke the fire, with Twitter user @LlabTooFeR speculating that such a device from HTC could launch as soon as “this summer” (which means Winter for us Australians).
It means that this summer we will see HTC One Google Edition or something like that…
— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) May 17, 2013
Make of this what you will — this is not an official announcement, it is not a rumour generated from within HTC, it’s just a tweet from a guy on Twitter who has, mind you, been fairly accurate in the past with things like this. That accuracy in the past aside, HTC have officially ruled this out, so it’s even money at the moment.
We’d certainly like to see this trend of manufacturers releasing an AOSP variant of their big sellers, and while they might not be as popular as their mainstream devices (remember that HTC and Samsung customise their phones not to irritate us power-users, but to make them more accessible to the masses), they’ll undoubtedly sell well to the power-users that love AOSP.
Thoughts? Share ’em!
I would so buy HTC one now if it was a straight nexus phone.
HTC haven’t really come out to deny this latest batch of rumours… so maybe there is some truth?
Also the fact there are all these sites running these rumours true or not at all should be ringing bells at HTC. “WE WANT THIS”
Also it would be good if manufacturers made the software features available to the non vanilla versions as Apps for the Google version so you could pick and choose what you want on your phone.
I hope so and I also hope we get Vanilla version of the top handsets from Sony, Moto and LG. If that happens Android will be truelly friggin awesome! I’m sick of compromising my want for a phone with an SD card USB OTG and vanilla Android that will get timely updates!
Just to recap in case I missed something: Rumour starts that HTC will do an AOSP version of the HTC One, HTC officially denies the rumour, some guy tweets it will still happen and Ausdroid posts a news article, claiming the tweet means there is now a 50-50 chance. Hrm.
I am generally concerned that Ausdroid is following in the footsteps of Android and Me who began to post rubbish articles which I assume was an attempt to obtain page impressions. I stopped visiting that site…
I want one.
Yes please
My main concern about this is Ultra pixel camera is rely mainly on the software so with the stock android, what will happen?
You lose Zoes and so forth? That’d be a shame.
AOSP with the HTC camera app…
Not really care much about Zoes or it features. I only care that if camera still perform as good as it is now or will be just like normal 4MP camera.
hold on a tick, so the ultrapixel is nothing to do with the physical size of the pixels on the camera sensor itself? Is that not the case??? So, its all just software and untruths from HTC?
True. The sensor itself is what makes the good images. The driver software is just the translator for what you can make the sensor do.
ok well now that is established, why would it end up being just a normal 4MP camera “No One”?
I’ll be clearer. Its not a MegaPixel Camera. The sensor is an “ultra pixel” camera.
As normal user I only see that is 4MP camera. And to make good picture with it as HTC advertised, we need software come from HTC. Please tell me that I am wrong because it will be better if the camera quality can stay the same with stock android as normal HTC One.
yes it is to do with the physical size of the sensor. HTC plays some software tricks to make it even better but in reality the main reason it is a good cam is because the sensor is large.
All AOSP roms require binaries/drivers adapted to the open source to allow android to communicate effectively with the particular hardware of the handset. This is the puzzle that devs have to solve when hardware manufacturers don’t release their hardware ‘blobs’.
HTC could include the necessary blobs for the cameras in an aosp build, to make the photos take the same quality as on the HTC rom, but still use the AOSP camera software.
Thanks for the clarification. Just one more thing if you don’t mind to answer me. If the stock android HTC One does become available and someone made a system dump. Can I install that on my HTC One? If yes, will I get OS update from my provider or HTC or Google once it become available? Thanks!
You
will be able to install it, but you’ll have to unlock the bootloader and potentially
void the warranty. Similar to what you have to do to install CM10.1. I’m pretty sure network providers will not touch it.
Thanks for your reply but it not really answer my question about who will provide the OS update once I got the stock android install on my phone.
Assuming that the hardware of a HTC one google edition is the same as a normal HTC one, then yes, theoretically that same image from the GE, should be able to be flashed on to the regular HTC one.
Once you are on that same image, it will look and behave exactly the same as a GE, including OTA updates.
let me emphasise the word ‘assumption’ though. HTC could very well make a minor change to the hardware, rendering that AOSP image useless/unreliable. In that case you would be in the hands of the (capable) dev community.
Thanks for clear that up.
Of course HTC would deny it. They don’t want people to delay their purchases of the currently available phones.
I’m eagerly awaiting this phone. Fingers, toes, everything is crossed.