Anyone here a proud owner of HTC’s DROID Eris? Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you today.  Verizon has come forward to say that the DROID Eris will not be getting the Android 2.2 update.  HTC has already stated that most their phones that launched last year would be stuck on their current firmware version, so we’re a bit surprised at Verizon’s announcement since they are not even selling the phone any more.  We’re pretty sure a few people are going to be disappointed with the news, but keep in mind that the Eris is running on 1^st gen Android hardware. 

Source: Computerworld

The latest report from NPD has just unveiled that Android has reached the number one spot as the best selling smartphone OS in America.  RIM’s Blackberry phones have been at the top since late 2007, but it looks like Android will be holing the top honor for quite some time.  Android finished off the quarter with 33% while RIM dropped to 28% and Apple gained a little, moving up to 22%. 

While the numbers are pretty impressive, we’re a little more excited to announce that the top five list of best selling Android phones for Q2 in the U.S. market included the HTC DROID Incredible, HTC EVO 4G, HTC Hero, and HTC DROID Eris.  HTC was not able to bump the Motorola DROID from the number one spot, but I’m pretty sure they are happy to have secured the other four. 

We are pretty confident that HTC will continue to lead the way on the Android front over the next few quarters.  The HTC Hero will most likely be faded out over the next few months just as the DROID Eris recently pulled off a silent disappearing act a few weeks back.  With 3-4 new Android phones from HTC expected to hit between now and the end of the year, HTC should have no problem staying at the top of the list, helping Android increase its market share lead over the competition.

The latest report from NPD has just unveiled that Android has reached the number one spot as the best selling smartphone OS in America.  RIM’s Blackberry phones have been at the top since late 2007, but it looks like Android will be holing the top honor for quite some time.  Android finished off the quarter with 33% while RIM dropped to 28% and Apple gained a little, moving up to 22%. 

While the numbers are pretty impressive, we’re a little more excited to announce that the top five list of best selling Android phones for Q2 in the U.S. market included the HTC DROID Incredible, HTC EVO 4G, HTC Hero, and HTC DROID Eris.  HTC was not able to bump the Motorola DROID from the number one spot, but I’m pretty sure they are happy to have secured the other four. 

We are pretty confident that HTC will continue to lead the way on the Android front over the next few quarters.  The HTC Hero will most likely be faded out over the next few months just as the DROID Eris recently pulled off a silent disappearing act a few weeks back.  With 3-4 new Android phones from HTC expected to hit between now and the end of the year, HTC should have no problem staying at the top of the list, helping Android increase its market share lead over the competition.

For those who have been paying attention to Apple’s so called “antenagate” fiasco with the new iPhone 4, you may have heard that Steve jobs came out pointing fingers at everyone else during last Friday’s press conference.  Steve made the claim that all smartphones suffer from reception issues based on how you hold them.  Apple went the extra mile to prove their point by demonstration the “grip of death” on a few competing smartphones, one being the discontinued HTC DROID Eris. 

The demonstration show the DROID Eris losing reception bars while being held in the left hand with the palm covering up the bottom left corner of the handset.  As Apple predicted, the reception hard slowly disappeared after nearly 25 seconds. 

While this test does indicate that the Eris does suffer from a similar reception issue as the iPhone 4, HTC has decided to speak up and let their customers know that the issue isn’t quite as bad as what the video shows.  HTC’s Eric Lin was in contact with Pocket-Lint over the weekend, stating that approximately 0.016% of DROID Eris customers have actually complained about reception or antenna problems with the DROID Eris.  To put that into perspective, that 0.016% is just over 34 times less than the 0.55% of iPhone 4 customers who have contacted Apple about reception issues. 

It’s clear that some smartphones have some reception issues to resolve, but we don’t really like it when Apple tries comparing their issues with HTC when in fact they are not even in the same league. 

Source: Pocket-lint
Videos: Engadget

The DROID Eris may no longer be available from Verizon, but that doesn’t mean that HTC or Verizon are no longer supporting the phone.  Verizon is expected to roll out an OTA update to the DROID Eris on July 16^th.  Before you get all excited, this is not Android 2.2, but a mere maintenance update which should fix some of the issues the phone has been having since Verizon pushed out the Android 2.1 update to the phone back in May.  The new 2.37.605.4 build for the HTC Eris will also include a few updates and enhancements to the contacts application which will allow better Facebook and Gmail syncing along with improved audio quality and Bluetooth accessory support. 

Check out the full list of new and improved features below. 

Enhancements:

• Improved audio – The audio controls on your Droid Eris have been updated.
• Enhanced speed dial – Save and add contacts to your speed-dial with ease.
• Improved text, video, and picture messaging functionality

Improvements:

• Your contacts now sync with Backup Assistant, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Facebook
• The Weather app/widget has been enhanced and stabilized
• Your Droid Eris will now pair with a Jabra Bluetooth headset
• Your Gmail contacts will easily sync with your Droid Eris

Source: DROID-Life

As more and more consumers turn to Android as their smartphone OS of choice, Verizon has silently removed one option for consumers to choose from.  Verizon’s DROID Eris is no longer available on the company’s website.  The HTC made DROID Eris has only been on sale for about eight months and many thought it would stay around a bit longer due to its recent Android 2.1 firmware update.  We called a few local Verizon stores last night and they confirmed that they still have the DROID Eris in stock but were unaware that the phone had been removed from the website.  If you were really fond of the HTC Hero variant, you better head on over to your local Verizon store before their supplies run out.  It’s no surprise that Verizon is looking to clean up their Android selection before the launch of the DROID X and DROID 2 next month, but no one thought that the Eris would be leaving the Android scene before T-Mobile’s G1. 

As fans of HTC products and the different operating systems that they use, it’s sometimes hard to get a good read on how satisfied out readers are with their phones.  Yes, we all know that there are gripes about getting the latest version of Android on our phones, but does that keep you from enjoying your handset on a day-to –day basis?  Fortunately, companies like ChangeWave have enough money to go out and talk to handset owners from across the country to get a feel for customer satisfaction.  Their most recent survey covered 1009 smartphone users in the U.S. and Canada.  HTC came in strong at third place, with only Apple and Motorola finishing with better scores.  Overall, 51 percent of HTC customers were very satisfied with their handsets.  Digging a little further, ChangeWave found that the Sprint HTC Hero scored the highest for HTC with 68% of customers giving it a rating of “very satisfied” compared to 50% for the HTC DROID Eris and 38% for the HTC Touch. 

Seeing these numbers we were a bit surprised to see such a huge gap between Hero and DROID Eris owners considering that they are essentially the same handset.  Honestly, having used both handsets extensively, I would give the DROID Eris a higher satisfaction rating over the Hero due to build quality and a smoother ROM.   I would also like to know why in the world the HTC Touch was included in the survey.  The Windows Mobile powered HTC Touch is three years old and should have been retired to everyone’s bottom desk drawer some time ago.  I’m sure most of us would give a 38% “very satisfied” rating to the Nexus One after three years of use. 

On a positive note for Android, 67% of customers said that they were very satisfied with Google’s OS.  Android didn’t grab the number one spot in the ratings, but it was only trailing by 4 percentage points behind the iPhone OS’ 71% satisfaction rating.    

ChangeWave is planning on doing a follow-up survey sometime soon so that they include the new owners of the HTC DROID Incredible.  We’re hoping they wait long enough to include those who plan on picking up the HTC EVO 4G and myTouch 3G Slide once they launch next week. 

So our question for you is: how satisfied are you with your HTC smartphone?

Source: Changewave Research

Verizon DROID Eris owners, your Android 2.1 update is here. Two days ago, we reported that Verizon was going to start releasing the OTA update for the handset on May 11th. The date has passed and a lot of Eris owners have been able to download and successfully update their phones to the latest firmware. Verizon’s support Twitter account has been keeping users up to date on how the OTA rollout will take place.

“The roll out will begin 5/11 and can take up to 2 weeks to receive for all phones.”
“No way to force it the release is random and once you receive it you will receive a notification.”
“No it can only be installed through the ota.”

It’s clear that Android 2.1 for the Eris has finally arrived! If the update has not hit your handset yet, be patient. From what we know, Verizon has over 500,000 DROID Eris customers so don’t be surprised if it takes them a week to push the update to your phone.

Sprint Hero owners… you’re update is coming… we hope.

Source: @VZWSupport