DALLAS (AP)--Texas Instruments will show off its technology that enables cell phones to record TV shows as the chip maker bumps heads with rival Qualcomm in a market that analysts say holds huge potential.
TI, which already makes chips for about half the world's cell phones, says it will demonstrate its recording and picture-within-picture technology at a trade show this week in Amsterdam.
Yoram Solomon, a TI marketing executive for mobile TV, said phones with the company's Hollywood video chip will be ideal for recording and watching short snippets of news, sports or other video programs on the go.
"You'll take it out when you've got two minutes to burn," Solomon said. "It will be good enough to get the latest update on general news or financial news or sports. If you want to watch a game, you'll probably do that on a TV."
TI says the first handsets using its chip for recording video will be on the market next year. However, no wireless operator in the United States has announced plans to sell phones with TI's chip, which is based on an open technological standard called digital video broadcast-handheld or DVB-H.
By contrast, Qualcomm has signed a deal with Verizon Wireless, which plans to launch a recordable cell phone TV service next year. Instead of DVB-H, which is not controlled by any one company, Verizon will use a proprietary Qualcomm standard called FLO.
"The quality of the broadcast is much stronger and the channels change faster," said Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson. "It's more intuitive for the user."
Solomon figures that TI's Hollywood chip alone could generate $500 million in revenue for Dallas-based TI within a few years. And that doesn't include sales of processors to many of the same phone manufacturers.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 7th September 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/19200.php