Nokia Android 11 update delays made official

Although it does try its best to update its dozens of phone models, it seems that this strategy is catching up to HMD Global. Despite its boast of shipping pretty much vanilla Android, the company is struggling to keep its phones up-to-date with the latest release of Android. Now nearing the middle of the year, HMD Global is releasing a revised timeline for its Android 11 updates and it isn't looking good for the company's reputation.

After prematurely revealing it, HMD Global did formally announce its plans for the Android 11 rollout for no less than 14 phones. That schedule would start before 2020 ended and would hopefully be completed by the second quarter of this year. As Nokia phone owners can testify, that never really happened.

As XDA would point out, the Nokia 8.3 5G was the first to get that update and it only happened in the first quarter of 2021. Based on the old schedule, the Nokia 1.3, 2.3, 2.4, 3.4, and 4.2 should have already been upgraded to Android 11. Of course, that hasn't happened yet either.

Perhaps to manage expectations, HMD Global is releasing a revised schedule that pushes almost all of those by a full quarter. Some, like the Nokia 1 Plus, are staying put, strangely, but now the company's schedule will last until the third quarter. That means that some Nokia phones will be receiving Android 11 just as Android 12 is announced.

HMD Global is silent on why the updates are being delayed but it is perhaps the victim of its own success. Having so many phone models coming from different ODMs, it might be a logistic nightmare to get all of these updated on schedule.