HTC has been looking into the possibility of bringing Android 4.4 KitKat on One X and One X+ for quite some time now. And the main reason why it can't be done is the support it needs from NVIDIA, the CPU and graphics chipset maker on both devices.

HTC One X and X+ Android 4.4 Hopes

HTC North America's PR team revealed interesting details regarding the company's older smartphones in terms of receiving future Android firmware updates. In a post created by HTC on Reddit, owners of the 2012 flagship Android smartphone, HTC One X, may gain hope on receiving Android 4.4 KitKat update if HTC can get what's needed for it.

Moreover, HTC One X+ is also going to be affected if the company manages to update HTC One X. In the previous months, HTC kept quite on confirming whether HTC One X and One X+ are going to get an update or not and simply put owners on hold until the next steps are confirmed.

Both devices are solid when it comes to basic hardware requirements such as having 1 GB of RAM chip and quad-core processors. In addition, the HTC One X and One X+ are already running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean via a firmware update which is probably heavier than Android KitKat.

So Why Can't HTC Update Them?

Hardware support on these devices have affected Android KitKat software development. According to ARS Technica, during the release of both devices in 2012, HTC used NVIDIA Tegra 3 System-on-Chip for the international and other non-U.S. variants of HTC One X and One X+ which now be an issue since HTC couldn't get the support it needed from NVIDIA to develop future updates.

But the United States variant of the HTC One X uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 that definitely supports future upgrade requirements.

"To address an issue that's top of mind for many folks here, we recently announced that we wouldn't be updating the HTC One X and One X+ beyond Android 4.2. Without the support of our chip manufacturer Nvidia, it made a global update of One X and X+ devices impossible," posted by HTC USA product team on Reddit.

HTC had no choice but to cancel software development on both devices, since it would bring owners who wanted to get the update to complain. As a result, the company will not make Android KitKat only available to one variant to avoid discrimination.

Owners may use custom ROMs, if they want, in order to use Android KitKat version without having any HTC Sense functionality or get the latest HTC One smartphone instead.