There’s a reason why every single device HTC has ever shipped has a Qualcomm chip inside; Qualcomm owns a small stake in HTC. With that in mind, the news that the HTC Sensation Z710t will pack an ST-Ericsson chip inside comes as a shock to those of us who obsess over these sort of details. The chip in question is the ST-Ericsson Nova A9500, which packs two ARM Cortex A9 processors clocked at 1 GHz and an ARM Mali 400 GPU, clock speed unknown. Those are the exact same components that make up the Samsung Exonys 4210, the chip that powers the Samsung Galaxy S II. The modem inside the HTC Sensation Z710t is also made by ST-Ericsson, it’s the Thor M6718 modem, and it’s important because it supports TD-SCDMA, the 3G standard that China’s largest operator, China Mobile, uses. Qualcomm’s lack of TD-SCDMA is the likely reason why HTC went with ST-Ericsson, but we can’t help but think that there are several folks at Qualcomm who are absolutely livid right about now.
Anyway, the more important announcement here is that the ST-Ericsson Nova A9500 is finally shipping. Announced back in February of this year, the Nova series processors will be ST-Ericsson’s chance to prove that they can compete with the big boys. For far too long their largest customer has been Nokia, and because Nokia’s ability to sell devices has gone to shit, ST-Ericsson is felling the pain. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Philippe Lambinet, a senior executive at ST-Microelectronics, said: “We knew they were on their way down, but we didn’t think it would be that bad.” The company’s wireless division, ST-Ericsson, posted Q2 sales that were 34% down from the same quarter last year.
When we spoke to Louis Tannyeres, chief chip architect at ST-Ericsson, back in July, he seemed extremely excited with the Nova chip because it’s going become an officially supported Windows Phone hardware requirement. If Windows Phone blows up, you can bet ST-Ericsson will be having a party.