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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]
E-TEN, Arima collaborating on 3G handsets
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]
BenQ renamed QISDA, but still BenQ... huh?
In what appears to be a doomed repeat of Palm, Inc's name changing and restructuring fiasco, BenQ had donned a new, newer moniker: Qisda. Damn if that doesn't just drip off the tongue... like a pneumonic cough. The new name, an acronym actually, stands for Quality, Innovation, Speed, Driving, and Achievements, not Quality Inn San Diego Airport regardless of what the all knowing Google thinks. The company's Chinese name has also changed from "Jia Da" to "Jias Da." So to break it down for you: BenQ is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qisda (AKA, Jias Da) whose familiar purple logo will continue to appear on Qisda's self-branded products. Qisda, however, will focus on LCD monitors, projectors, multi-function peripherals, and handset OEM/ODM businesses. The name change gets all official on September, 1st. Hey Qisda, feel free to use the illustration above for your new corporate logo.
BenQ changes it up and spins off the brand, keeps manufacturing
Fighting hard to stay alive after the BenQ Mobile fiasco, BenQ has switched things up by deciding to spin off its BenQ brand and hold onto its manufacturing business, instead of doing things the other way around as most analysts expected. According to BenQ chairman K.Y. Lee, it was a bit of a no-brainer: "The scale of the branded business has become relatively small compared to our integrated manufacturing service business. Therefore, it is a straightforward decision to spin-off the branded business." Lee will be leading both companies, with the manufacturing arm -- which does contract work for heavyweights such as Dell and HP, and accounts for 60 percent of BenQ revenue -- taking on the new name of "Jia Da Corp." after the spin-off. The new, fabless BenQ will stick to product design and engineering, while Jia Da Corp. will try to make its buck in the cut-throat world of ODM, something which Lee once dismissed as a viable way to survive. Arguably, BenQ couldn't be doing much worse than it's doing right now, so we're content to sit and watch how it all plays out.
Fujitsu cranks out commercial 5.8GHz WiMAX SoC
While it hasn't come quick nor easy, it looks like more and more vendors are jumping on the WiMAX train, and just a day after Horizon chose Navini to get its WiMAX on, Texas Instruments, ORZA Networks, and Sun Create Electronics are becoming some of the first to receive shipments of Fujitsu's chip. The 5.8GHz WiMAX baseband system-on-chip (SoC) is dubbed the "industry's first" to become commercially available, and while it supports frequencies ranging from 2GHz to 11GHz in both licensed and unlicensed bands, its also "being used in the industry's first commercially available fixed WiMAX CPE supporting the 5.8GHz band." Of course, these all-in-one chips are being marketed and sold specifically to ODMs, but chances are it'll have something to do with your connection to WiMAX if Fujitsu has anything to do with it.[Via FarEastGizmos]
AMD introduces DTX open standard to boost SFF adoption
Although vanilla desktop PCs have (generally) been the same size and shape for years, the small form factor world has never really settled down, and while various other protocols have been thrown out there, no one has actually stepped up the task of standardized an SFF chassis until now. AMD has just announced the DTX "open standard," which the firm hopes will "enable broad adoption" of the SFF PC in order to deliver "innovative solutions to market that are smaller, quieter, desktop-friendly," and less taxing on the ecosystem. Reportedly, the DTX standard "will be designed to embrace energy-efficient processors and allow an optimally designed small form factor system to consume less power and generate less noise." Additionally, an open standard that's widely embraced will make the lives of OEMs much easier, and will hopefully give us folks looking for those wee PCs a bit more choice when it comes to picking one up. Notably, it seems that Asus has latched on already, boasting that it will start busting out DTX-compliant motherboards here shortly, likely to be bundled in some fashion with an AMD chip. If all goes as planned, this open standard should actually decrease manufacturing costs across the board over time, and AMD stated that a "review copy of the DTX specifications" should be made available sometime this quarter.[Via Inquirer]
Treo 700p in short supply for a while?
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.
A slew of Tech Faith Wireless Windows Mobile phones
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]
