Our favorite Windows Mobile smartphone manufacturer has landed itself in a bit of hot water. We can’t imagine that this class-action lawsuit will have little more effect than to convince HTC to release some updated firmwares, but it’s still a bit off-putting to see our dear HTC in legal trouble.
You see, there’s this class-action lawsuit that was filed against HTC, complaining that HTC failed to provide support for a particular graphics driver. The resulting lack of software has led the plaintiffs, the HTC Class Action Organization, to claim that their Qualcomm MSM7200 and MSM7500 chipset-based smartphones are getting out-performed by older HTC models as well as competing handsets.
Apparently, the Qualcomm MSM7200 and MSM7500 chipsets include ATI Imageon hardware, but HTC overlooked the necessary driver to enable hardware graphics acceleration. Even the HTC flagship, the TyTn II (aka HTC Kaiser/AT&T Tilt 8925), has been listed as one of the afflicted devices.
The HTC Class Action Organization has even put up a $3,000 reward to anyone that comes up with a software solution to the graphics-performance-issue.
We’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out. If we were HTC, our end-game would be to quietly roll out that darn driver and appease the 4,000-strong group of disgruntled HTC smartphone customers. For what it’s worth, we already signed the petition.
[Via: Register Hardware]