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Nokia granted temporary ban on microphone sales for HTC One

The microphone used in HTC's new phone adopts components invented by Nokia, claims the Finnish phone maker.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read
The HTC One.
The HTC One. Sarah Tew/CNET

The HTC One now faces a setback over its supply of microphones.

Nokia yesterday won an injunction from an Amsterdam District Court preventing sales of the current microphone for HTC's new flagship phone. Manufactured by STMicroelectronics NV for the HTC One, the microphone uses components allegedly invented by Nokia and made exclusively for Nokia phones, Reuters reported today.

Nokia said that it dissassembled an HTC One phone to find that the "dual membrane HDR" microphone, which can record high-quality audio, is the same type used on its own phones.

"HTC has no license or authorization from Nokia to use these microphones or the Nokia technologies from which they have been developed," Nokia said in a statement.

In effect until March of 2014, the injunction prevents ST Micro from selling the component to HTC. The ruling will be limited to the Netherlands, a patent attorney told the BBC. However, HTC still has to scramble to find another supplier.

"We are considering whether it will have any impact on our business and we will explore alternative solutions immediately," HTC said in an statement sent to Reuters.

This isn't the first problem faced by the HTC One. The phone's launch was postponed due to a limited supply of cameras. The delay hammered the company's first-quarter earnings.

The HTC One finally debuted on Friday, spreading its reach in the U.S. to subscribers at AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. HTC is also offering unlocked versions of the phone -- one a $574 consumer edition with 32GB of storage and the other a $649 developers edition with 64GB of storage and an unlocked bootload suitable for tweaking.