HTC is looking into using Liquidmetal technology for its future smartphones, according to sources within the supply chain. They’re set to cooperate with Taiwanese firm Jabon International and from what I know Apple was at the forefront of the development of this technology.
Apple recently signed a 2 year contract with the US Liquidmetal Intellectual company and starting working on chassis based on this technology. They do make a bunch of stuff from Liquidmetal, like the tiny SIM key that comes with the iPhones. HTC is supposedly trying to release a Liquidmetal phone before Apple and they already went ahead and recruited an R&D team from Japan to assist them with their task.
The team is working with Jabon and it’s likely that HTC have the upper hand here, since Apple may be held in place by its partnerships with metal chassis makes like Catcher Technology, Foxconn and Casetek. They handle the aluminium alloy unibody chassis and the demand for those is quite strong right now.
