HTC has confirmed the sad news that its 2012 flagship handsets, the HTC One X and the HTC One X+, will not be receiving an update to take it to Android 4.4 KitKat.

Both models will be staying in their current state at Android 4.2.2 and Sense 5. HTC passed the information to us in a statement.

"We can confirm that the HTC One X and One X+ will not receive further Android OS updates beyond Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5," it said. "We realise this news will be met with disappointment by some, but our customers should feel confident that we have designed both devices to be optimised with our amazing camera and audio experiences."

In October HTC updated the HTC One X and One X+ to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and Sense 5, bringing with it the BlinkFeed news aggregator and a whole host of other goodies, including a change to galleries, the hardware shortcuts grid and a cleaner look and feel.

READ: HTC One X gets Android 4.2.2 and Sense 5: What improvements does it bring?

The result is that the HTC One X, in its present (and perpetual) state, is very much like the HTC One was at launch. That phone, the darling of 2013, has since been updated to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Sense 5.5 which included further refinement to BlinkFeed and galleries.

There is still no confirmed date for the HTC One Android 4.4 KitKat update. HTC has repeatedly said it will be available from the end of January 2014. Hopefully we'll see it arrive before the launch of the new HTC One, the rumoured HTC M8.

READ: HTC One (M8) release date, rumours and everything you need to know