Verizon HTCOne KitKat update has been approved, should arrive “shortly” [Update: rolling out now]

Last week HTC’s Jason Mackenzie released a statement on HTC’s website, revealing that carrier-branded HTCOne handsets in North America would be missing their  self-imposed deadline, though not by much.

Since then, we’ve not only seen KitKat reach carrier-branded HTC One handsets in Canada, but Sprint customers who initiate the request manually have also gotten their hands on the update. Now it looks like its almost Verizon’s turn for the update.

According to Mo Versi, HTC’s Executive Director of Product Management, Verizon users will see the update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat and HTCSense 5.5 “shortly”.  While he doesn’t get any more specific than that, Versi does mention that the update has passed technical approval, which is the final stage involved before an OTA goes live.

In other words, unless AT&T and T-Mobile make their move very quickly, it looks like Verizon will be one of the first carriers to bring KitKat to the HTCOne.

So what kind of changes can we expect with the update? While the most obvious change is Android 4.4.2 and all the goodies that come with KitKat, there’s also some HTC-Specific changes. While we don’t have a full change-log just yet, we know that changes have been made to BlinkFeed and that there are general improvements for the camera, gallery and more. We also expect some minor cosmetic changes with Sense 5.5.

Although we’ve yet to hear any reports from Verizon owners that have received the update just yet, hopefully the wait is a short one.

UPDATE: Verizon has now uploaded a document that details what to expect from the update. This is a sign that the OTA rollout should begin very soon.

UPDATE 2: That didn’t take long, we have already heard at least a few reports suggesting that the update has started rolling out. So how about it, has your Verizon HTCOne made the jump to KitKat yet? Let us know in the comments below!