Ah, the moment that Desire owners have been waiting for... or is it? HTC released its official Gingerbread build for the Desire this morning, but it's not in the form of an OTA (over-the-air); instead, it's a full RUU (ROM upgrade utility). This means that not only is the installation process a bit more complex than an OTA, it will also wipe the device during the upgrade process, forcing you to start from scratch upon first boot.

Now, that may not sound too bad to some of you, but there's more: the update is limited regionally, as well. It's not available to users in Germany, North America, South America, South Korea, or Japan.

So, if you're in an applicable region and you feel like tackling an RUU installation, then here's the skinny on the upgrade, directly from HTC:

  • All customizations, including operator applications, will be removed.
  • All wallpapers, except the default wallpaper, will be removed and placed online on the HTC Developer website.
  • Several HTC applications will be removed and placed online on the HTC Developer website.
  • The official Facebook application will be removed and is downloadable on the Android Market.

Just like originally stated, quite a few of the apps have been stripped from the build in order to make it fit on the Desire's limited ROM.

All that aside, HTC is recommending this update for "developers only, due to the complicated nature of the update," but we figure the most savvy enthusiasts can handle the task just fine.

To grab the download, head over to HTC's Developer website.

[AC]