HTC One M8 won't see Sense 7 until Android M

Back in July HTCconfirmed that the HTCOne M8 would, in fact, be upgraded to Android M. What we didn’t know, however, is that HTCwould be skipping the Android 5.1 and Sense 7 update in favor of M. In a tweet this weekend, HTC’s Mo Versi revealed that the Sense 7 upgrade for the One M8 will be tied to the upcoming Android M update. While he didn’t say for sure that the phone won’t receive an update to 5.1 (just without Sense 7), it certainly sounds that way.

With the One M7, HTCvowed to improve its mixed reputation with device updates delivering new updates as close to 90 days from general release as possible, and for a while it succeeded at delivering this promise. Unfortunately, the One M8 received quite a few update delays over the course of its life, and it is hard to say what kind of fate the One M9 will find when it comes to update transparency and speed.

Of course, things could be worse. HTCcould have released Sense 7 and Android 5.1, only to abandon the phone after that. Though Android 5.1 introduces several bug fixes to Lollipop, it’s still far from perfect and so it is great news that HTCis planning to bring Android M to the device. The big question is just how long that will take. If HTCcan deliver an Android M update to the One M8 within a few months of its final release with the new Nexus family, good on them. But if we are waiting until early 2016? We imagine there will be a number of One M8 users strongly considering jumping ship.

What do you think, are you surprised to hear that Sense 7 to the One M8 won’t be coming until Android M? Or do you feel it isn’t that big of a deal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.