You’d be forgiven for writing off HTC’s smartphone business as over. The Pixel 3A that Google just released was developed by its Taiwan team, which Google acquihired from HTC over a year ago, and HTC itself has been quiet about new flagships since last summer’s U12 Plus. Well, HTC has shown some small signs of life this week by announcing its release schedule for the overdue updates to Android 9 Pie. The HTC U11 will be updated first, around the end of May, to be followed by the U12 Plus in June, and the U11 Plus starting at the end of June. Owners of other HTC phones are likely out of luck.

There was once a time when HTC was among the first Android vendors with the latest version of Android, both in terms of updating its existing flagships and offering it on its latest releases. But those years are now long behind us, and HTC’s focus and future path are now fixed squarely on making the Vive virtual reality hardware ecosystem a success. The present Android 9 update can probably be considered a final gesture of goodwill for the company’s loyal fans. The newly announced Android 10 Q from Google isn’t likely to show up on any HTC phones, unless someone ports it to the immortal HD2.