HTC has made good on its promise to release an Android 2.3 update for the HTC Desire (after some flip-flopping earlier) but there are a few catches. The update is described by HTC as “for development only and not for general public use.” HTC warns that flashing the ROM may disable some functions and its disclaims any liability from the use of this ROM.
HTC cites memory constraints as the reason it is only offering a ROM upgrade utility (no OTA update) and has removed customizations (including carrier ones), all wallpapers except the default one, several HTC applications, and the official Facebook application. Many of these are available for download through the HTC Developer website and the Android Market though.
Furthermore, HTC has indicated that the update will not be available to all HTC Desire devices. Specifically excluded are regional variants for Canada and US (among other countries). It’s not clear (but appears unlikely) that carriers, including TELUS, will validate this update before releasing it.
I suspect that the news will not earn HTC a lot of brownie points with HTC Desire owners and push more of them towards unofficial Gingerbread builds.