By Thomas Newton on Thursday, 29th July 2010

It’s been a long time coming but it looks as though HTC Hero customers on Orange are finally getting the long-awaited Android 2.1 (Eclair) over-the-air update.

On Tuesday Orange posted a statement on its Newsroom saying that the updates would arrive “from next week” but some users have reported getting their first updates already. So if you’ve got an HTC Hero and you’re on Orange, keep an eye on the status bar at the top of the screen, where you should soon receive the update notification.

The update will arrive in two parts. It’s important to note that the second part will wipe all data on your phone, so make sure you back everything up before accepting this.

The Hero’s 2.1 rollout was initially due to be completed by the end of June, but Orange customers have had to wait a bit longer due to problems thrown up during testing on the colourful network.