U.S. HTC One owners are in for a treat. While many HTC Ones are still upgrading to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, HTC confirmed that all HTC Ones in the United States will have Android 4.4 KitKat within 90 days of the operating system's Oct. 31 release.
HTC America president Jason Mackenzie confirmed the dates in an interview with Engadget. A quick look at the calendar reveals that this would translate to every U.S. HTC One, including all carrier variants, running Android 4.4 KitKat by the end of January.
What isn't clear, however, is how this will apply to Verizon HTC Ones. HTC Ones on major carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint have all received Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and while Verizon was supposed to have its upgrade out over the air by the end of October, Big Red ran into some development problems. According to Mackenzie, the Verizon HTC One Android 4.3 update might not roll out until the end of November. This doesn't leave much time for Verizon to work on Android 4.4 KitKat for the HTC One, but until the carrier or HTC releases more specific dates, there's no point in fretting.
U.S. HTC One owners will also be delighted to learn that the Android 4.4 KitKat will contain the new Sense 5.5 user interface. U.S. HTC Ones were some of the first models to receive Android 4.3, although the speed came at a cost: there's no Sense 5.5 in the download package. Instead, Sense 5.5 is only available to international variants downloading Android 4.3. If Android 4.4 KitKat arrives by December, so will Sense 5.5, which includes improvements to BlinkFeed and Video Highlights among other new options.
Check back with Latinos Post for more information on HTC One updates as it becomes available.