Will the Droid Incredible Ever See 2.2? Other Updates?

We’re only days away from the launch of the HTC Droid Incredible, and while we’ve considered adding it to our list of devices to provide coverage and support for, we have one pretty major concern.  As the rumors of Android 2.2 have already surfaced and many are predicting a May release date to developers with a rollout to consumers in just the few months thereafter, will the Incredible ever see Android 2.2 or any other major update?

The newest member to the “Droid” family hits the market on Thursday and will come pre-loaded with 2.1 which brings it up to par with the Moto Droid and Nexus One, but there is still that one major difference which should leave potential Incredible users hesitant.  SenseUI.

In an email exchange this morning with a fellow blogger concerning the Incredible, it was quickly pointed out that the HTC Hero (running SenseUI) who launched as a top Android device, has now completed its year on the market without a single OS update.  That’s right, the HTC Hero is still stuck on 1.5 after having been passed over by 1.6, 2.0, 2.0.1 and now 2.1.

While HTC hasn’t formally blamed its SenseUI for the delay, they did recently drop this apology to Tech Radar…

The integration of Éclair on the HTC Hero took longer to develop than anticipated and we apologise [sic] for this delay.

It’s all speculation at this point as to the Hero’s OS update delays, but after seeing 2 updates to the Moto Droid in just 6 months while running the standard “Google Experience” you have to point out the one major difference which still remains the Sense interface.

So what do you think?  Should Incredible users be concerned?  Will we look back after a year of Incredible coverage and see nothing but frustrated users watching other devices pass them by?

I seriously hope not.

Update: While I focused all of my writing efforts on the HTC Hero apology and update delays, I completely spaced the fact that the Droid Eris continues to sit at 1.5 and has been passed up for updates as many times as the Hero but in an even shorter amount of time.  A second question should probably be asked:  Is it an Android 1.5 or SenseUI issue?  Stay tuned…