HTC Desire to squeeze in Gingerbread at expense of apps

HTC will perform an application cull on the HTC Desire in order to make room for Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It announced its solution on Facebook after yesterday backtracking on its initial decision to leave the Desire out of the upgrade loop.

Its statement reads: "To resolve Desire's memory issue and enable the upgrade to Gingerbread, we will cut select apps from the release. Look for status updates starting next week. We apologise for any confusion."

HTC is keen to get a few more details into the public arena after a glut of negative press surrounding this issue. This doesn't end speculation over exactly how the memory issue will be resolved. Will users get to choose which apps they can do without? Is Sense at risk? Will HTC continue to dribble out status updates or bite the bullet and let us know exactly what's going on?

Though we don't despise the HTC Sense overlay, it would be a victory for Android if all the extra bells, whistles and bloatware were removed and users had complete control over what they wanted to keep on their phone.

Ironically, some Facebook commenters are predicting users will be unhappy when they see a few of the problems Gingerbread (apparently) brings to the Desire. "You won't all want Gingerbread when it ruins your Wi-Fi," moans one user, adding, "Many people have told HTC but they don't seem to care and insist it's a new 'feature'." Others, having shunned HTC, are now boasting about their new Samsung Galaxy S 2 phones.

We wonder what Google makes of all this. Most people are laying the blame squarely with HTC for putting such a feeble amount of memory into a high-end phone that's only a year old. A few commentators, however, have suggested the debacle hurts the overall Android brand.

The problem stemmed from HTC underestimating Android's future memory needs when it designed the Desire. If it can learn from this mess and push out more high-quality phones and tablets in the future, its fans will quickly forgive it.