Help: Is the HTC Hero Android-forward-compatible?

I got this in from regular reader — and bona-fide mobile genius (he should have the T-Shirt) — Jonathan Mulholland. He posted it on his posterous too.

Have a read:

I love the HTC Hero, pretty much everything about the device looks fantastic. I just have one nagging doubt hopefully someone can answer for me – will the Hero be forward compatible with future versions of Android?

This sounds like a trivial point, especially when HTC have really taken the Android platform to another level with the Sense UI, but what will happen when future builds of Android make Latitude even more useful or add Google Voice as a component part of the OS?

It looks to me that HTC Sense is more than just a UI layer – some major Android components have been swapped out (the keyboard and phone dialler are custom created by HTC for example). I guess this would mean that as future updates to the Android OS or major device applications are released Hero owners would have to wait for an updated HTC build version before upgrading. This would be a shame because it looks like Google are starting to make it easier for owners to upgrade their devices by making updates available though the Android Marketplace.

Any thoughts?

Jonathan

My initial thought is that yes… it will be. I suspect it should be possible to upgrade it. It should be. But I don’t know for sure. Does anyone have a perspective for Jonathan.