To the average person an exchange is more of an annoyance than anything. To a company like HTC and T-Mobile, it costs money, and a lot of it. Being the Android geek that I am, I know that at least 75% of exchanges are due to software issues or application failure. The solution, root your phone and put something on it that works. Sadly the carriers can’t recommend that officially. They need to stay true to their partners. On the other side of the coin, you have an update that is out but rolls slow. Sometimes taking as long as 6 months for every active device to get an update. This is rather irritating for customers. Especially when a friend or relative got the update first.
All in all, this is a good move on HTC’s part. I do see a few flaws with this plan though. First, why not just upload the files to a backend website for the store to download to their own SD card and avoid the shipping costs. Second, do you know how hectic every T-Mobile store will become? Once news of this is out no one will wait for an OTA. They will be standing in lines for hours. They are going to need to have an extra employee on hand for weeks just to update devices.
Source: Tmonews