HTC to Change Touch-Sensor Supplier

Apple’s deals are not as bad in patent battles as they seem at first sight. In case you don’t know, Apple’s products were banned in some countries, which is a serious strike to the Cupertino-based company. But it doesn’t mean all courts are against Apple and it loses all suits. Vice versa, ITC affirmed its previous decision stating HTC did use Apple’s technology illegally. This can make HTC change its touch-sensor suppliers.

As you probably know HTC is in a deep cooperation with Atmel, which supplies maxTouch sensors for HTC smartphones. But looks like Atmel’s sensors use “touch ITO pattern” technology, which is very similar to what Apple is using. This similarity resulted in one of the already usual patents we talked about above. So HTC can deny Atmel to avoid another collision with Apple, otherwise it might cost HTC too much, say ITC’s ban on HTC smartphones in the US.

Fortunately, there are several other viable touch-sensor panel options on the market. So HTC can switch to one of them, for example to Synaptics or Cypress Semiconductor.

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