[...] announced about a month ago that they would be updating their Android phones (HTC Hero and Samsung Moment) to [...]

There will never be any 2.1 upgrade for the Sprint Hero. I’ve waited as long as I’m waiting. Just bought a 3GS IPhone and cancelled my Sprint account. AT&T here I come.

[...] Sprint: “Ok let’s just jump to Android 2.1″ [...]

[...] announced about a month ago that they would be updating their Android phones (HTC Hero and Samsung Moment) to [...]

They could also just do a controlled OTA update by offering the update to a limited number of phones at regular periods.

[...] options with their manufacturing partners. It appears they got everything sorted out because Sprint tweeted that both of their Android phones will be getting Android 2.1. They provided a release date of [...]

The “Verizon exlusivity deal” wasn’t made up out of thin air. There were and are a handful of good reasons to believe this:
1. There were as good as no announcements about Android 2.0 before DROID was in stores.
2. Google didn’t release the source code together with DROID.
3. Other manufacturers hadn’t even heard of Android 2.0 shortly before Verizon announced the DROID.
4. So far, there is no other device with Android 2.0.

I remember reading somewhere that the 2.0 was developed from a separated branch from the 1.6.

Looks like Google is working on to integrate them into 2.1…?

This whole update method will be one of android’s biggest downfalls. You have to wait for your carrier to give you the updated OS. You should be able to get it from the hardware manufacturer’s website or Google’s website since its their OS. But android is quickly finding out why making a stable version of windows is so hard. There’s too many different versions of hardware out there. Now you have too many versions of android out there. 1.0, 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.0.1, and now 2.1. Holy crap!

And for those who can’t comprehend this, you need to return your phone and go back to rotary dial and yellow pages.