HTC Looking Into Giving One X Owners a Taste of KitKat

If you’ve got one of HTC’s last generation flagship smartphones, the HTC One X, then you’ve probably been pretty bummed sitting on the sidelines of HTC’s Android 4.4 KitKat lovefest. While its current One lineup – the One, One Mini, and the One Max – are all currently in the middle of an Android 4.4 KitKat rollout that will hit all HTC One smartphones on all carriers before the end of March, HTC had previously said that they had no plans to throw some of that KitKat over to One X owners. But now it appears the company has had a change of heart – according to a Reddit IAmA conducted by the HTC North American PR team, the company is “actively exploring” bringing the latest version of Android to One X handsets around the world.

So, if HTC is clearly interested in doing it and One X owners are clearly pumped about it, then what’s the hold up? Interestingly, the HTC North American PR team is putting the blame entirely on SoC and graphics CPU manufacturer Nvidia, who provides the SoC found in the enhanced Nvidia One X+ variant sold by some carriers. While the standard HTC One X contains a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, which is fully compatible with Android 4.4 no problem at all, the Nvidia Tegra 3 found in the One X+ isn’t getting the Android 4.4 by Nvidia that it needs.

HTC believes that upgrading the HTC One X but not the HTC One X+ wouldn’t be fair to those who shelled out their hard earned cash for the One X+ model, which is a significantly more powerful version of the smartphone. So, as is with anything, time will only tell if HTC and Nvidia is able to provide the support needed to throw One X owners a bone. Until that decision is made, HTC is promising HTC 8X owners that their Windows Phone 8 powered smartphone will indeed be getting a free upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 “Blue” when that upgrade drops later this year. So it’s not all bad news, right?