The company that once designed the Treo for Palm (and countless other amazing white-label devices) is apparently back in the ODM game. That's right, if you were wondering how the hell Sony Ericsson pulled the XPERIA X1 rabbit out of its hat, look no further than HTC. While we don't think they did any of the special software, we heard it through the grapevine that the X1 is all HTC-built, which kind of explains a lot if you ask us.

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]

Despite a seemingly successful (and continuing) run with Quanta on 2.5G goodies, E-TEN has announced that it's working with ODM Arima on its 3G lineup. The first device to bear the fruit of Arima's labor will apparently be the glofiish X800 with HSDPA, VGA display, and Windows Mobile 6 -- so we've gotta say, the new kid on E-TEN's block is doing alright for itself. The company says that it plans to introduce four new smartphones by the end of the year, though it's unclear at this point exactly how many will get WCDMA under their hoods (our vote: all of them).

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

We haven't really had any reader reports of 700ps being particularly difficult to find, but Inventec, which produces the 700p for Palm, is claiming they'll be unable to start "volume production" of the device until September due to software problems. Yeah, we don't really know what to make of this, either -- if volume production hasn't started yet, what do you call the kind of production that's been going on so far? And do we really need a higher production rate at this point? Either way, the kinks won't be affecting Palm's other breadwinner right now, the 700w, on account of HTC owning its manufacture.

We have no idea who these guys are, where they came from, or if they're even real, but the buzz is a new Chinese ODM by the name of Tech Faith Wireless (TWF) is about to storm HTC's castle with a sweet lineup of Windows Mobile devices. The specs seem a little pie in the sky (at best), with most rocking quad band GSM, HSDPA, 2.4 and 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreens, MicroSD, 512MB flash, 512MB RAM, GPS, USB On-The-Go, 2 megapixel cameras, optional WiFi, and optional MicroDrives (in their larger PDA devices). We're not saying it can't be done, but they're going to have some convincing to do that they, and their products, are the real deal, not to mention the uphill battle they're going to have getting these things on the market and taking on the 800 pound ODM gorilla. Tons more -- and we mean way too many -- shots after the break.

[Via MobilitySite]