HTC's top engineers are on the case!
HTC users are having so much trouble with their poorly-performing mobile handsets, they've gone as far as to offer a bounty for anybody able to develop and contribute better video drivers. Yep, things really had become that desperate.
Though new video drivers for existing devices aren't in HTC's pipeline, the manufacturer has stepped forward and promised improved performance for its customers, stating that it has found ways of dramatically improving performance on its current touch devices. HTC's statement reads:
Some of our top engineers have investigated video performance on our devices and have discovered a fix that they claim will dramatically improve performance for common on-screen tasks like scrolling and the like. Their fix would help most of our recent touch-screen products including the Touch family of devices and TYTN II / Tilt, Mogul / XV6900. The update is in testing and we hope to release it soon.
However this fix is not a new video driver to utilise hardware acceleration; it is a software optimisation. Video drivers are a much more complicated issue that involves companies and engineers beyond HTC alone. We do not want to lead anyone to believe they should expect these. To explain why we are not releasing video acceleration instead of the optimisation I offer you our official statement…
“HTC DOES plan to offer software upgrades that will increase feature functionality, over the air wireless speeds and other enhancements for some of the phones being criticised, but we do not anticipate including any additional support for the video acceleration issues cited in customer complaints. It is important for customers to understand that bringing this functionality to market is not a trivial driver update and requires extensive software development and time.
HTC will utilise hardware video acceleration like the ATI Imageon in many upcoming products. Our users have made it clear that they expect our products to offer an improved visual experience, and we have included this feedback into planning and development of future products.
To address lingering questions about HTC’s current MSM 7xxx devices, it is important to establish that a chipset like an MSM7xxx is a platform with a vast multitude of features that enable a wide range of devices with varied functionality. It is common that devices built on platforms like Qualcomm’s will not enable every feature or function.
In addition to making sure the required hardware is present, unlocking extended capabilities of chipsets like the MSM 7xxx requires in-depth and time consuming software development, complicated licensing negotiations, potential intellectual property negotiations, added licensing fees, and in the case of devices that are sold through operators, the desire of the operator to include the additional functionality. To make an informed decision about which handset suits them best, consumers should look at the product specification itself instead of using the underlying chipset specifications to define what the product could potentially become.”
There you have it. Though no official release date for the software fix has been announced, it looks as though sluggish performance on your touch-based handset will soon be a thing of the past. We'll keep our fingers crossed for owners of current HTC products but despite the above statement, it still sounds as though truly improved video acceleration won't be found until HTC's future Imageon-based products.
