Htc Wanted A Snapdragon 800 In The One Max But Qualcomm Decided They Were Too Small

There’s a part of the technology industry that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it should: logistics. How you build a widget, for what price, and how you sell said widget is often more important than the widget itself. Case in point: HTC used to be an important player in the smartphone space, but today they’re eclipsed by companies like Sony, LG, and even ASUS. If you’re a company that sells components to handset makers, you want to sign contracts with big firms who can guarantee a steady supply of orders.

According to DigiTimes, HTC is no longer big enough to be on Qualcomm’s radar. Sure, Qualcomm will still deal with HTC, but when it comes to their flagship chip, the Snapdragon 800, that particular SKU is being given to the competition. Just yesterday I wrote about the potential of HTC’s next smartphone, the One Max, shipping with an older Snapdragon S4 Pro. Now it looks like that’s indeed going to be the case. And processors are only part of the story. HTC is likely facing the same sort of treatment from screen makers, camera module makers, the factories that have to mill the unibody of the One, One Mini, and One Max.