The launch of the HTC One S has just hit the shored of Taiwan, but it’s not exactly the same phone we’ve seen in Europe and North America. Rather than shipping with a 1.5Ghz Qualcomm S4 processor, the HTC One S that’s heading to Taiwan is powered by last year’s Qualcomm dual-core MSM8260 S3 processor clocked at 1.7GHz.
When rumors of the HTC Ville C first surfaces, we speculated that HTC’s wanted to introduce a cheaper phone with the same look and feel as the One S. While the S3 processor does offer some cost savings, the real reason for the processor swap may an issues the supply constrains from Qualcomm.
Back in March, we reported that Qualcomm’s SoC manufacturer, TSMC, had halted 100 percent of it 28nm chip production in late February (before the HTC One was unveiled) to make changes to the production process. TSMC eventually got things back up and running, but the shutdown reduced the number of available Qualcomm S4 chips which are in very high demand now that the North American Samsung’s Galaxy S III will be using it as well.
Hopefully Qualcomm and TSMC can ramp up production of the S4 chip and produce enough silicone to get ahead of supply issues. If you find yourself in Taiwan and want a real HTC One S, we suggest you import it and experience the phone HTC originally intended for its customers.
Source: IntoMobile
