Palm Pre Manufactured by CMCS (Foxconn)?
As we originally suspected just before the Palm Pre was announced back in January, the Original Device Manufacturer (ODM) for the Palm Pre will not be HTC or Inventec. Instead, DigiTimes is reporting [via Brighthand] that the ODM for the Palm Pre will be Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS). Since 2005, CMCS has been part of the "Foxconn Technology Group." Foxconn is a much-better known entity, as they have acted the ODM for Motorola, Nokia, and others (either directly or through other subsidiaries like Mobinova).
What does this mean for Palm Pre consumers? Not much - phone makers like Palm often utilize various ODMs and often switch them up. The only X factor that may come in to play is that since CMCS is a relative unknown to most smartphone users, it might be difficult to know whether they'll be able to keep up with demand.
DigiTimes also reports that "shipments [are] expected to begin in March at the earliest." Supply chains being what they are, it's highly unlikely that we'll see the Pre before April, then, but certainly we should within Palm's oft-repeated 1st half of 2009 timeframe.
One fun nugget: DigiTimes reported as early as September, 2007 that Palm had tapped Chi Mei to ODM "CDMA 2000 devices" that the article assumed were slated for 2008. Given that the ODM for the CDMA Treo Pro is HTC, it seems pretty clear in retrospect that they were working on the Pre.
Thanks to Francis for the tip!
