HTC buyout of Dopod in final stages: i-mate, (Unlocking Mobile) O2, HP wail
HTC buyout of Dopod in final stages: i-mate, O2, HP wail
Filed under: Cellphones, HandheldsContinuing their skyrocket beyond ODM-dom, HTC’s buyout bid for Taiwanese Dopod has moved into the final stages. Having signed a memorandum of understanding, the only thing left in the estimated $150 million deal is approval from the Taiwanese government. Assuming HTC chairwoman and Dopod controlling shareholder Cher Wang, daughter of petrochemicals billionaire Y.C. Wang and wife of HTC boss-man Peter Chou, has enough influence to push this through (read: she does), then HTC is about to find themselves in direct competition with their own customers O2, i-mate and HP. HTC already confirmed their decision to self-brand phones in Europe, now the Dopod deal could result in HTC designs being sold exclusively under the Dopod branding outside of Europe. In fact, HTC has already cut ties with both O2 and i-mate in Australia, New Zealand, and India. So if Dopod’s claim that HTC manufactures 80 percent of Windows Mobile phones is true, well, O2, i-mate, and HP best be looking for fresh design and manufacturing blood on the quick. [Thanks, Ash] Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsSPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Oki Electric Industry intros “world’s smallest MP3 chip”
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable AudioAs decreasing chip sizes seems to be all the rage these days, Japan’s Oki Electric Industry isn’t missing out on its own opportunity to go small. The company recently announced that sample shipments of the “world’s smallest MP3 playback chip” were being dispersed, and that manufacturers of cellphones, PDAs, MP3 players (clearly), and essentially anything in which MP3 playback could be crammed into should take notice. The minuscule module — dubbed the ML2011 — packs an MP3 decoder and 650mW amplifier onto a 3.6mm x 4.2mm wafer, and can be conveniently paired with Oki’s reference board and “SoundLib” software in order to bypass that whole headache-inducing “playback software development” phase. If you can spare just a tad more room, and want something that’s instantly mountable, the 5mm x 6mm QFN-packaged version is also on the horizon. While pricing details were kept under wraps, Oki plans to ramp up full scale production by December, and will probably lobby mighty hard to get under the hood of Motorola’s next cash cow.[Via CrissCross] Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsSPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.
Source: cellphones.engadget.com