HTC waves goodbye to Qualcomm exclusivity

From the very first HTC manufactured Android smartphone, the Dream, to the present day HTC has only used Qualcomm chipsets in its Android smartphones and tablets. This will soon change; rumours of a Tegra 3 powered smartphone have been floating around the world wide web for a few months and it now appears that HTC has placed an order with Nvidia.

This move to Nvidia's Tegra chipsets is believed to be a result of a new strategy within the Taiwanese phone company as result of a poor 2011.  In 2011 they focused too much on the LTE market in the US and showed little love to the international Android enthusiasts. As a result, HTC had poor financial results in the last two quarters of the year.

The Tegra 3 powered smartphone is rumoured to be the upcoming HTC flagship smartphone currently know as the Edge, not to be mistaken with the U2 guitarist.  While details are scarce at the moment it will likely have a 720p screen and launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It is assumed that it will be announced at Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona at the end of this month.

Kitguru says: HTC are looking to regain their lead at the top of the Android totem pole and with strong competition from Samsung, the battle between manufacturers could get interesting in 2012.

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