DROID Incredible to Receive OTA Update Adding 720p and Mobile Hotspot
Droid Incredible owners, prepare yourselves to become upgraded. According to our sources, an OTA update is readying for deployment to the DI which will add some much needed features that were missing during the device's initial launch.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Droid Incredible launched on Verizon earlier in 2010 without two features its rivals shipped with: 720p video capture and mobile hotspot capability. Per sources cited by Droid Life, an over-the-air update is now being readied to close both gaps — though as of this writing the update remains unconfirmed by HTC or Verizon.
The move fits a pattern already established across Verizon's Droid line: the HTC Droid Eris was slated for an Android 2.0 update months after its own launch, making post-purchase software drops a recurring lever for keeping handsets competitive mid-cycle rather than relying on the next hardware revision.
First-order effects
- If the update ships as sourced, current Droid Incredible owners gain 720p video recording and hotspot functionality they were told at launch the hardware could not do — no new purchase required.
- HTC and Verizon get to re-market an aging handset against newer launches without touching the supply chain, since the fix arrives as software.
Second-order effects
- Rivals launching with those same features lose a spec-sheet differentiator the moment the OTA lands, pressuring competing Verizon handsets to differentiate on hardware or price instead of checklist features.
- Carrier-bundled hotspot capability raises the question of how Verizon monetizes the newly enabled feature — tethering has historically been a paid add-on rather than a free unlock.
Third-order effects
- If launch-day omissions patched later become routine, phone competitiveness shifts from what ships in the box to the vendor's update cadence — a structural change in how handset lifecycles are managed and marketed.
- It also sets buyer expectations that missing features may arrive post-purchase, weakening the incentive to upgrade quickly and lengthening effective replacement cycles.
The trend: Smartphone vendors are shifting feature delivery from hardware launch events to ongoing over-the-air updates, making the update pipeline itself part of a phone's competitive positioning.