Palm, i-mate, others moving manufacturing contracts back to HTC?
We thought that HTC's bold venture into the direct-to-consumer space pretty much spelled doom for its once-burgeoning ODM business, but apparently not. We don't know if these guys are just exceptionally good at what they do, exceptionally cheap, exceptionally convincing, or some combination of the above, because a report out of Taiwan's Commercial Times claims that Palm, i-mate, and MWG -- all companies who've moved their manufacturing contracts solidly away from HTC in recent years -- have come back into the fold, ultimately bumping HTC's contracting business to account for more than 10 percent of its total business in the first quarter. We're skeptical that these three brands (all of whom compete with HTC at retail) would suddenly decide to throw up the white flag at roughly the same time, but considering the kinds of things that happen when other ODMs come into the picture, a little HTC TLC could be just what the doctor ordered.[Via IntoMobile]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave @ Jan 17th 2008 7:54PM
hey dicknuts whyd you remove all the comments from here?
Dave @ Jan 17th 2008 7:56PM
btw...
http://www.htcclassaction.org/ FTW
HTC needs to fix the nonexistant video drivers for the Qualcomm MSM 7200 and 7500 chipsets (present in every phone from the TyTn II through the Polaris).
Moco @ Jan 18th 2008 6:36AM
I agree...HTC needs to fix the video problems that negatively affect everything from touch-screen based graphics productivity, hi-resolution video viewing, to gaming, a problem present in the "Kaiser", Touch and Cruise. For people to spend $700+ on these and end up with devices that are outperformed by 2 year old technology is absurd.
And a big SHAME ON YOU Engadget and other tech sites for singing the Kaiser's praise, inciting many like myself to purchase one only to discover this MAJOR flaw for myself. Shame on you. Make this up by publishing an article front and center detailing this issue and HTC's refusal to officially acknowledge it. Did you know that there's a current bounty on XDA Developers of $3000+ for anyone who can hack suitable drivers?
Real videos of the "all powerful Kaiser" in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vn6DAq5q6M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xeb8-m5opDA
And the petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/tytn2vid/
And this is a response direct from their product development team, lifted from XDA Developers:
"We here at HTC Technical Support definitely understand your concern about using our devices to their maximum potential. In this case regarding the hardware acceleration for our HTC TyTN II and its carrier branded versions that is affecting the viewing, capturing, rendering, and playback of media on the device.
We have received lots of user feedback regarding the use of the above functions similar to what you are experiencing.
Unfortunately, at this point in time, we do not have a solution to increase the device's performance with respect to those functions; however, we have forwarded your concerns to our Product Development Team for resolution.
I hope we have answered your question in detail. Feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions.
HTC Technical Support"
Dave @ Jan 18th 2008 8:40AM
glad to see another XDA-Devs member on here, haha
E71 @ Jan 19th 2008 4:02PM
Well, hopefully Palm and all those other manufacturers start paying attention to all the p*ssed off customers out there and write those damn video drivers.
E71 @ Jan 19th 2008 4:02PM
I meant I hope HTC writes those drivers, not Palm etc.! lol.
Adam Elphick @ Jan 21st 2008 4:01AM
The HTC 7500/7501/ T-Mobile Ameo / Dopod U1000 etc all have this problem too. For amachine with a 624Mhz processor, an ATI graphics accelerator and a fabulous 5" VGA screen it should play video briliantly... but it doesn't. Come on HTC write those damn drivers!!