HTC decides to skip Android 4 4 4 update OTA based on 4 4 3 security fix coming soon

International version of the HTC One M8 is currently running Android 4.4.2 (1.54.401.10) but this will change very soon. According to the confirmed information, the new over-the-air (OTA) update with Android 4.4.3 will start rolling out late next week for the 0P6B10000 variant of the HTC One M8 with the following CID numbers: 

HTC__001, HTC__E11, HTC__102, HTC__203, HTC__405, HTC__Y13, HTC__304, HTC__A07, HTC__002, HTC__016, HTC__032, HTC__J15, HTC__M27, HTC__A48, HTC__K18.

What we know so far is that the update will be tagged as 2.2x.401.x and together with Android 4.4.3 it will bring slightly updated HTC Sense UI (HTC SDK API: 6.25) but the version of the launcher will remain 6.0, at least officially.

• ro.build.id=KTU84L
• ro.build.version.release=4.4.3
• ro.com.google.gmsversion=4.4_r4
• HTC SDK API: 6.25 (current latest M8 software is based on SDK 6.17) ---> this might indicate improved HTC Sense version
• kernel version is still 3.4.0

Apart from the OS itself, almost every part of the firmware will be updated too.

• Hboot: 3.18.0.0000
• Radio: 1.19.21331147A1.09G
• OpenDSP: 38.2.2-00542-M8974.0311

Why no Android 4.4.4 yet? Because HTC decided to include the security fixes known from Android 4.4.4 in their 4.4.3 release. For some reason this must be easier for the HTC if such path was chosen.

Also, whats worth to mention is that M8 owners who re-locked their previously unlocked devices using htcdev.com, after the Android 4.4.3 update might need to generate new unlock_code.bin token to unlock the device again. Apparently the identifier token wont be the same after the incoming OTA.