As component shortages build for high-end and camera-enabled mobile phones, Toshiba looks as if it is coming up trumps with a brand new CMOS/ DSP VGA module that the company claims is one of the smallest around, ready for ramping this March. Also take a look at recent news item ‘Mobile Phones Enter 2-Mpixel Era’ Here noting a Complementary Oxide Comeback, with chips on the side, for camera phones.
The former J-Phone lost considerable ground to DoCoMo in particular in man-machine business applications. The idea of being able to pay for stuff from your phone from Japan’s ubiquitous vending machines (24-hour booze, cigarettes and some really exotic stuff too) is old hat here. But, now, here’s a move that could presage a Vodafone move to remote monitoring business. Vodafone K.K. today announced that it would begin selling a remote module (the VRM301R) to industrial and business machine manufacturers.
Renesas Technology Corp. today announced its decision to incorporate Microsoft Corp.’s digital audio and video codec technology, Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series, and RealNetworks’ Inc.’s digital audio and video codec technologies, RealAudio 10 /RealVideo 10, into the SH-Mobile Series of application processors for next-generation mobile phone systems. These two technologies are widely used in such devices as PCs, PDAs and portable players, and their inclusion in the SH-Mobile, one of the world-leading application processors, will enable them to be installed in mobile phones, greatly increasing their market penetration.
Intel Corp’s Japanese unit said on Thursday it expected to supply a chip that combines communications, software applications and memory functions in a single piece of silicon for use in NTT DoCoMo Inc’s 3G phones as early as the end of 2004. The new chip, which is expected to be cheaper, more energy efficient and occupy less space than the separate chips currently used in 3G mobile phones.
The mobile phone industry will sell 150 million smartphones in 2008, 15 times this year’s sales, with the Symbian OS leading the smartphone operating system market, according to a report published this week by ABI Research. The report projects strong growth for high-end mobile phones, with Microsoft’s market share trailing behind Symbian, and Linux bringing up the rear.
Service-centric platforms are pushing towards Linux and Symbian OS, a move toward flexibility and customization being pushed by DoCoMo, Vodafone and Orange will play an important role in pushing smart phone sales to 150 million units, according to research firm ABI. “With increasing competition and high churn rates,” explains ABI analyst Kenil Vora, “operators have felt the need to differentiate their products.”
