Palm, i-mate, and MWG Switch Back to HTC?

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080117PB204.html' target='_blank'>http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080117PB204.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Smartphone handset vendors, including Mobile and Wireless Group (MWG) (ex-O2 Asia Pacific), i-mate and Palm, have recently switched their smartphone orders back to High Tech Computer (HTC), with the shifting of orders to push the ratio of ODM revenues at HTC to over 10% in the first quarter of this year, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report."</i><br /><br />According to a Commercial Times report, Palm, i-mate, and MWG (previously O2 Asia Pacific), which have looked to other ODMs in recent times, are now switching back to HTC for their orders. This has its ups and downs. I know a few here cherish HTC's stable line of hardware, while others here love dabbling with strikingly different phones from lesser-known ODMs (take a look at some of i-mate's and MWG's recent releases). Which crowd are you in?

[Menneisyys]

Certainly bad news. The more competing hardware manufacturers, the better.

Currently, HTC has NO high-end device I would happily purchase. (The Kaiser is pretty much a joke with its driver issues, weight and QVGA screen when you compare it to the Toshi G900 (OK, I know the Toshi isn't really bug-free either; this is why I haven't purchased it either) or the Nokia N95 / N82.) No (W)VGA devices from HTC at all.

At least, i-mate has a pretty much usable VGA device. Not that I'd buy it either - using the outdated PXA-270 is a serious letdown in 2008, when HP is already using the PXA-320 in the 210 series.

All in all, i-mate's switching back to HTC is, IMHO, very bad news, which further reduces the number of WM devices we can choose from.

[JKingGrim]

Does this affect the current Ultimates that have been and will soon be released?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I shouldn't think so - the Ultimates already announced already have ODMs lined up. I should think this would be more for future devices.

[Knocksock]

I don't believe this (ref. i-mate) rumour. i-mate going back to HTC ? No...

All respect to Meinssyss, but the PXA-270 does the work. We all know how slow Windows Mobile can be in response..think it should be focused on how the OS could be tuned. Hopefully MS will show us they can make good and snappy OS in later versions :)

[PdaAddict]

Bad move, if true. IMHO HTC has not bothered to produce a decent device in the last few years. They became arrogant knowing that there isn't much we can but buy their outdated and underperforming devices.

[JKingGrim]

Bad move, if true. IMHO HTC has not bothered to produce a decent device in the last few years. They became arrogant knowing that there isn't much we can but buy their outdated and underperforming devices.I agree. Not writing proper video drivers for every handset that uses the Qualcomm MSM7200 or 7500 is a perfect example of this IMO. Their devices seriously under-perform their potential because HTC is too lazy to make a good product.

[Menneisyys]

Guys, with Hal Goldstein, I´ve just met some top i-mate folks. They are NOT returning to HTC - this is ABSOLUTELY sure.