No WM 6.5 for HTC Touch HD – were busy, its too old, and no-one will update in any case

October 8, 2009 | By Surur

oldhd It is no surprise to hear that the HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and HTC Touch HD will not be getting updates to Windows Mobile 6.5, despite for example the hardware between the Touch HD and Touch Diamond 2 being virtually identical and the Touch Pro being the development environment for Windows Mobile 6.5.

It is however useful to hear HTC explicitly give their reasons, rather than speculating. HTC Benelux director Mark Moons did just that. Tweakers.net reports him saying that HTC felt it would take too much time for HTC to make Windows Mobile 6.5 suitable for these ‘old’ phones. Moreover, people with these older HTC smartphones less inclined to do an update in any case.

For phones lucky enough to get the update (that would be the HTC Touch Diamond 2, HTC Touch Pro 2 and HTC Snap) the update should be available next month. The Touch phones will also get the latest version of TouchFlo3D, now renamed HTC Sense.

If HTC right to spend their time developing new phones (like the excellent HD2 for example) rather than supporting older ones? let us know in the comments.

Via Allaboutphones.nl

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged htc, HTC Touch Diamond, htc touch HD, htc touch pro, windows mobile 6.5

Jake

I'm not really too surprised about this. I thought it was obvious that this would happen when Microsoft announced that a Windows button would be mandatory on all 6.5 phones.
sgbmad

Xda forums, our updates
http://twitter.com/ThomasBullier @ThomasBullier

XDA FTW o/

I believe this is just a clever decision coming from the HTC team.
http://xcpus.com wuzy

Exactly, people who even bothers to update their ROM will head to straight to XDA rather than wait for usually half-baked official ROM.
http://intensedebate.com/people/j2inet j2inet

Its been 4 years and these words still ring true

"Why Can't I Upgrade"
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/…

Carl

That's funny. When WM5 came out Dell tried to sell an upgrade disk for the X50v which had WM2003SE. It was a total failure, and Dell had to pull the upgrade. Nothing worked right. Yet thanks to the folks at XDA I have (or should say had, since I just recently sold it) an X50v running WM6.1 flawlessly. Microsoft and the OEM's might not be able to get it right, but one of the cool things about WinMo is the community of users who work to make the platform better.

netboy

if you too cheap to buy a new phone with wm6.5, then they dont need you as a customer.
you probably too cheap to upgrade phone for another 5 years? haha

Ego

Up until a few months ago, the Diamond and the Touch Pro were the top of the line…
http://twitter.com/StephenHowden @StephenHowden

Its not about been too cheap, a 24 month airtime contract means its gonna be another 12 months before im eligible to upgrade, so il be with the Touch HD until then, its still a pretty powerful piece of kit so it would have been nice to upgrade it to 6.5
The manufacturers see devices like this as disposible items these days, but long gone are the days a 12 month contract was the longest you was expected to keep a phone!. . . . . in contrast, a cheap £150 desktop PC can be upgraded from windows vista to the latest windows 7. . . . . so why cant a £450 windows mobile device be offered an upgrade to the latest OS?
Chris

Wrong. HTC just lost me as a customer. I'll get an iPhone instead…

Chris

And I'm way more tech savvy than almost anyone else here. I just prefer to run "supported" OS's.

Carl

It's so much work, never mind that the guys over at XDA do it in their spare time. :S Oh well, wuzy nailed it. If you're savvy enough to upgrade your ROM, you'll find better choices at XDA.
DRTigerlilly

why would i upgrade when their hardware changes are so incremental…The Touch HD2 is the first time in years the hardware has seen any noticeable upgrade. Tell me why an aging Dell Axim feels faster than my Touch HD, and why the spec differences to current devices are negligible…Agreed though…HTC lets a bunch of hobbists, show them up everyday with their roms on xda.
MoB

Stupid, stupid. Why do they think that "people with these older HTC smartphones (are) less inclined to do an update in any case"? It is nothing but a bullshit. — I will update from xda-developers, of course, I just need to find some good – and preferably almost vanilla – cooked ROM. And I will never ever buy neither WM device nor HTC device…
Gby

HTC are utter b*****ds. I spend £500 on one of their products only 8 months ago and I’m forgotten about and no longer valued as a customer. Do they honestly think everyone has enough money to buy each new phone they bring out at £500 a time? I thought the world was meant to be running out of money? Apparently HTC thinks every has even more money than they had before. They should be trying to encourage people to adopt their technology and software (MS) not put them off with stupid prices and the denial of software upgrades for their existing customers. From what I’ve heard on other sites 6.5 isn’t very good anyway, it’s just 6.1 with more colours. HTC will bring out yet another overpriced phone next month i bet. If they (MS and HTC) want loyal customers, stop pushing us away and treating us like sh*t. let us have the damn upgrade!

KennyB123

Aww, Gby, you poor little flower. So fragile.

Everyone else here has the right attitude. If you desperately wanted your 6.5 fix so badly, then you would already have it by now. And chances are, it would be more fully featured than the "official" HTC release. So relax, take a deep breath, head over to XDA-developers.com, and get crackin. A 6.5 update to your device is just minutes away.

Chris

@KennyB123,

Its rude to mock.

Although, Ive gone through the whole XDA ROM flashing phase, what I've realized is that it takes waaaay too much time for most people with a serious job, that need their phone's working for business purposes. You have to research your ROM, take a look at what bugs people complain about in the thread. Pick the ROM that is most appealing. Flash the ROM. Work out the kings that most XDA hobbyist ROMs come with, which can take several hours to track down and correct via various registry edits and/or cab installs. If you got a pure vanilla ROM, you can look forward to having to track down and install the latest version of things like transcriber or MS Office. And of course you then have to reinstall your own apps and get your phone syncing again.

I'm sorry guys, but this is just too much for someone with a real profession. And it is only aggravated by the fact that in the quest to always have the latest, greatest, cooks will often develop upon beta or even alpha leaked software. Take for instance the new WM6.5 leaks, practically every ROM is based on those instead of the stable WM6.5 that has actually been released.

rico

This is all true. i found this all out after flashing my Fuze with a "stable" ROM. i must admit that compared to some others, it was quite good, the few issues i had had quick fixes, and i've gotten my "must have" software installs down to a science. But it still requires way too much time, and i find myself flashing my phone on the weekends when i have a little more time to work out kinks. Even as an enthusiast, it's not how i like to spend me free time.

Problem is, i can't go back to vanilla 6.5. The supposed 6.5.1 builds feature the close/OK buttons at the bottom which is such a minor yet important change that i dread using a supposedly more stable build if it means dragging my thumb to the top of the screen. i'll continue with this build (23034) until another appears with some must-have features. It's fast and stable, which is more than i can say for the stock AT&T ROM this came with.
KennyB123

Well, I apologize for mocking.

I will admit that HTC *should* give updates to their older devices, but I guess it just doesn't bother me that much.

I feel like the majority of Windows Mobile users are tweakers anyways. I guess there are some of you who are business professionals with no time or desire to tweak. Understandable, and unfortunate.

I can almost guarantee that if XDA-developers didn't exist, HTC would have been more interested in updating their older phones. I think they know that 95% of those older phone owners are already a step ahead of them anyways.

Besides, if you're in the USA, you not only depend on HTC, but also the carrier as well to release the update. I can almost guarantee that it would have stopped at the carrier.
http://xcpus.com wuzy

Real profession you say?

As a sys admin managing Exchange servers and a bunch of WinMo devices deployed out there it's my job to see them running smoothly and bringing in $ for the company.
So of course it is in my interest also to customize/find a ROM to my liking.

hhh

I believe Gby's main point wasn't about getting his 6.5 fix or not, but rather on how HTC neglects us, customers who had once forked out and arm and a leg for one of their devices not long ago. touch HD was released only about a year ago and we're already forgotten. tsk tsk tsk. that's so wrong.. even after a year or so, it is still retailing at a premium price in Australia and its considered one of the higher-end phones here.

Gby

thats exactly wat i was on about. HTC don't care about you after you buy one of their devices. You get one official ROM update and thats it. I love how it says on the update page "HTC is commited to giving it's customers the best possible experience". Are they heck. As for all the different cooked ROM's out there on XDA, I'm not going to bother. It's far to complicated, unsafe and no doubt the ROM i end up picking will keep crashing. I want a phone that is stable and that I can rely on when I need too. Far too many of the bells and whistles offerered by XDA (sorry guys) ended up making my device unusable- Gyrator for example. Whenever I wanted to answer a phone call it would try and rotate the screen then it would screw up and crash.

George

It is most unfortunate that HTC is not updating the Win Mo to 6.5 to the HTC Touch HD which I paid a lot for its high end specifications and capabilities.
LordDeath

Unlike Apple HTC earns money only through selling their hardware. Providing software upgrades to all the older phones lowers the customer's need for newer hardware. That is the reason why they can't provide new ROMs for a model for many years.

Onesolo

aHAHA give me a break, they are a bunch of chineses that are underpaid and work for 12 or more hours ^_^ (just being ironic)
The question is that I know a lot of hardware companies, that only sell hardware, and still keep releasing updates for their hardware months or years after release date of the product.
One example, Nokia (or Sony Ericsson), they have a lot of phones and still they release a lot of updates. I remember the good old Nokia 3310, years after release and was still receiving updates… and Nokia is from Finland!!! (great wages and less hours of work)

LordDeath

I can only speak about my Nokia experience:
They apply firmware updates but usually only fix bugs or improve the performance. I remember that the 6680 had an extra new icon row in its standby screen. All the 6630 (it shares nearly the same HW with the 6680) firmware releases after the 6680's own release still did not include this extra standby screen feature.
They always tried to keep some software features exclusive to the newer phones. That sucked and would still suck today, if I could not rely on the xda-devs…

Rafyvitto

These so call 'OLD" phones HAVE the same hardware as these other so call 'NEW" phones, except for the htc leo, hes a hole new league xD.
abc

htc makes shitty roms anyway. even newbie chefs in xda make better roms. what makes the forum so great is that information is exchanged from one another so everyone is constantly learning and everything is constantly updated/improved.
Who?

The 6.5 ROMs are going to have HTC Sense? That's enticing. It's also going to make the Tilt2 look like the utter crap that it is.
http://www.xcpus.com wuzy

Funny enough I buy WinMo devices based on their hardware spec. and most importantly cooked ROM availability and ease of porting. That goes to the majority of HTC made devices. I've still got a Blueangel and Universal 128MB running here as test beds for new WM6.5 builds.

Both HTC and M$ knows the importance of XDA and hence never even attempted to lose them down. (The M$ hoax one doesn't count). They let us distribute their proprietary code, unlike Google Android. You can't ask for more tbh.
RTR

Got to agree, wuzy, but there are still a legion of users for whom the fact that HTC seems to have dumped them after they have got their cash hurts like hell. Not a great lesson in customer PR, is it? All it will achieve is push more users over to using cooked ROMS……. now that may have been their strategy all along, as it invalidates hardware warranties ni the event of a repair (as they tried to claim with me recently on a Tytn II repair)…. hmmmmmmmm.
Martin

My opinion: I have bought HTC Touch HD in february this year. I was saving money for it because I knew I'd buy it. What makes ME feel sad is not that we won't be able to upgrade to 6.5 officialy (I am running 6.5 for a long time anyway already) but that there is no support for this device anymore. I gues you are all right that HTC is trying to make money from customers buying new devices. But Blackstone is not that old and anyway – it is still very good and was HTC's flagship! What is with the flagship? Did they forget? This really makes me sad. I was thinking about buying Leo, but that will be an huge investment and I don't want to sell HD so underpriced (I bought it for €560 and people are now selling it for 300!!!WHY?). I guess I'll stick with my beautiful older brother of Leo which is the BEST EVER! howgh…PS: Viva la XDA and HTCpedia!

Gby

agreed. Thats another reason why i don't want to get cooked ROM. If it breaks down (which it will do- planned obsolescence ahem) they won't fix it because the warrenty will be void.
Same here, I spend ages saving for my HD and a month later they bring out Diamond and Pro 2.

I spend £500 and the Recycle value is only about £118 now.

Bea

Who can point me to the right direction for an XDA ROM upgrade of the HTC Touch HD to WinMo 6.5?
It is very disappointing, the HTC Touch HD was an expensive device in Feb 2009, and I will refuse to buy HTC ever again if I can't get it upgraded.
htc_client

i have htc touch hd for a week and NOW htc says no upgrade to wm6.5, a product like htc hd deserves a upgrade its a flagship on the hardware part ,shame on you HTC….this will be my last htc product…i going to samsung now because even the first omina wil be upgraded with win6.5 and assistance all the time.In this times of crysis keeping clients on his side its very very important..i dont know what htc is going with this attitude..sell an upgrade for htc hd with a small price and i will buy it for sure
fpaa

@bea http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename…
biggy

if this new is true, i'll be one more Iphone user…..for sure.
HTCtouchHD user

HTC is giving the worse image as customer support is referred.
This is my first HTC device, and it was not cheap. I got it in july at a discounted price from my operator in exchange of a 18 months contract. It means that I'll keep this mobile for at least this time.
If I spend such a large amount of money I want to have the latest software. That's what Apple is doing with the Iphone.

IF HTC does not provide with the upgrade to WM6.5 for this device, you can be sure that my next device will not be an HTC.

HTCtouchHD user 2

I agree. I paid quite a hefty sum for my Touch HD (without a contract with any mobile company). It's been a disappointing experience but I thought WM6.5 would change that.

Now that this is not going to be the case, my next device will definitely not be a HTC. Be the way, the video features on Touch HD do not live up to its hype: the playback is mediocre (jerky) and the recording worse. My old o2 XDA II could do better!

jerry

i just bought htc touch hd for less than three months..What the F***………..
david

I own an HTC Touch Pro (Fuze), and this will be my last HTC device. I won’t even support them through products sold through Samsung and the like. I will make sure the product I own has not had HTC’s efforts put into it.

Their phones are expensive, and with prices like those, customers expect some service. I’m suprised that phones will need a “start” button. That’s crazy. You can reprogram buttons on these phones. You can also use the touchscreen. What’s the point of having a mandatory “start” button?

I enjoy the freedom that I get with the phone, but again, I expect support for the price paid.
Not_Happy_John

Disappointing that HTC won't provide 6.5 on the HD. If you buy the HTC Leo at the end of this year or beginning next, what's not to say HTC will not provide an ROM Upgrade this time next year ?

I paid alot of money for this damn phone, and it's still under warranty. I expect the 6.5 Upgrade as HTC's mandate to honour warranties and product capability during the warranty period.

C'mon HTC, you want to be a market leader and have a good reputation, then live up to it and provide the upgrade to the HD. Or are you a bloody coward and just focused on profit ?

Rovex

Not providing 6.5 is not failing to provide warranty support. Who says they are mandated to give you a new operating system?

Rovex

Surely you buy a device for what it is, not what it might become. If the original spec was not what you wanted, dont buy it!

Kriburg

By your logic, nobody should be wasting any effort on software updates or fixes. I agree that there should be some reasonable time limit for obsolescence but if this is reduced to only a few months after purchase, then it becomes very difficult behavior to defend for a"top of the line" company. Sounds like planned obsolescence of the least subtle form to me.

Kriburg

HTC richly deserves a total boycott for this kind of outrageously arrogant " customer service". I bought my HD two months ago and the thought that I would not be able to easily update to 6.5 never even occurred to me. I guess that I need some serious lessons in hard ball business practices from HTC upper management. I even offered to exchange my HD for HD2 and pay them a modest fee to do this, no deal.
Arve

My Touch HD will be my last HTC. Until I get 6.5.
John

I asked HTC if I would be able to pgrade my Touch HD to Wimdows Mobile 6.5 – this is the reply I received on 7/Oct/09:

"Dear valued HTC customer,

Thank you for contacting our Customer Support Center. We are dedicated to providing you with the best quality service and answering all of your questions and concerns.

Yes it will be availavle for this model but we do not have the official date to release yet we recommend that you check the HTC web site for the ugrade in couple weeks."
FFS_HTC!

Never ever a WinMo nor HTC device again. This was my second and last phone. I'll go back to Nokia..

—Waiting for N900…
lucifer

HTC should be aware for those comments of customers, as i am one of the Touch HD owner and very disappointed about unable to upgrade to wm6.5, I’m thinking of buying the toshiba or other competitive brand..GOOD BYE HTC
wood

Simple. No more HTC phones for me. I'll just buy an iPhone which can be upgraded to the latest firmware OS always.
Kriburg

Inquiry Information to HTC Site
Inquiry Type Customer Service
Inquiry Description
I have a HTC HD that I purchased in August of this year. Previous queries about this topic indicated that HTC had a instituted a policy to not make available an upgrade for this machine to win 6.5. On the web there is a rumor circulating that this outrageous and stupid decision has been reversed and an upgrade will soon be made available. What is the official current status of the win 6.5 upgrade for the HD?

Kriburg

Response From [ Ahmed (France Support (Customer Service)) ]
Dear Mr.Kriburg
Thank you so much for contacting HTC.
Kindly note that regarding Touch HD, we have not received yet any updates that it will be upgraded to WM 6.5. What was confirmed for the time being is TOUCH Diamond II, Touch PRO II and SNAP.
Thank you so much for using HTC products.
If you have any other inquiries, don’t hesitate to contact HTC again.

Respect & Regards,
HTC TEAM
Mitch

You would think that when you buy a 600$ SMART phone you could upgrade like a notebook. This is ridiculous! All in the name of marketing and selling new phones. You would think that thier are enough phones out there already.
Hoshang

Well, it will would be great to develop HTC phones for winmo 6.5. Microsoft has definietly come up with a software that can outclass the i-phone. A brilliant Hardware coupled with this OS will surely captivate the minds of Smart Phone Users
Guest

I am a Touch HD owner, I sould be stupid to by once more HTC knowing that they might not provide me the update if they wish so.
Frank3

HTC has a customer base that will get smaller because of their decision to abandon loyal customers. I have a HD and will not update to HD2 in fear that it will not receive ROM updates in little over 12 months. The HD i have i don't plan to update soon, but when i do no more HTC.
fjm

So what am i supposed to do with my recently purchased HD??? HTC will not be getting my business ever again.
Jos

KPN a large telecom provider in the netherlands, sold me 4 weeks ago the HTC touch HD! and now it shouldent be possible to upgrade the long overdue software what a stupped org. is HTC? Even in times the economy is down, still these people dont understand that the principle of custumer is the king should be prevail. For sure this is the last HTC is ever buy. XDA has I hear good solutions to upgrade, but for me the instructions and my non understanding of software-installation are too difficult.
Baz

So, a lot of you didn't do any research or ask question's when you bought your HD's from where ever, yep, that's definitely HTC's fault.

Just, out of curiosity, when you buy new PC's, how many OS upgrade's do some of you people expect for nothing from the hardware vendor like HP or Dell etc ?
HTC Sucks

HTC sucks big time; no more HTC phones for me; with or without the 6.5 upgrade.
Trust factor is gone; further more;
camera sucks; video recording is pathetic.

another iphone user coming up..
Joe

What is wrong with the current software on the devices you have??? WM 6.5 is no magic bullet for the ills of WM 6.1…. It has been obvious for a long time (simple google search) that HTC were not going to supply an upgrade to WM 6.5 for smartphones such as the Touch HD and Touch Diamond. HTC are constantly coming out with new hardware platforms. They have to draw the line somewhere in what they can develop for and support. If you are after a vendor who has two hardware platforms and concentrates their efforts in supporting and developing for two platforms go buy an Iphone.

Do your research before spending big money next time…….geez!!!

Andrei

Realy constantly?

Ian

Having owned 2 hd's for just under a year, I do not call them old. and I have no intention of upgrading them until they are about 2 years old. But I expect to be able to upgrade my software in that time to the latest. With this decision and with my experience of there less than great customer service. I shall be another who will never buy a HTC phone again, if they are not going to support there customers.
Andrei

Have you seen Peter Chou? What do you expect?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/200…
They play nice with M$ and Google only to sell their under-engineered and cheap-made crapware at a high prices in the West. I hope Apple will render them broke with this lawsuit.
Stupid Sony they rejected the Nexus One.