Multimedia, 3g Phones At Rs 1,800

[tanveer 59]

To provide original equipment manufacturers the capability to introduce low-cost multimedia-rich feature phones at such affordable prices, Texas Instruments - a designer and supplier of digital signal processing solutions and semiconductor products - recently announced eCosto, a new single-chip platform which has been jointly developed by TI's R&D teams located globally including India.

Sham Banerji, head, software development (India) said the phones built on the eCosto platform would cost less than $40 (around Rs 1,800). Although he did not divulge the name of the handsets manufacturers that are using the platform, he said the handsets were expected to be rolled out in the early next year.

"With the launch of eCosto, we believe that 3G will become affordable to a larger mass. Our R&D efforts are mainly targeted at introducing technology at an affordable prices," said Banerji.

The phone will have features like audio (MP3), camera (upto 3 mega pixel), video stretching, hedging and GPS (Global Positioning System) apart from many other entry-level 3G features.

TI has announced partnerships with Sasken, Motorola, OpenPlug and SKY MobileMedia, to develop applications and software for the platform.

In 2004, TI introduced the industry's first single-chip solution for mobile phones. According to the company, over 15 handset manufacturers worldwide have adopted TI's 'LoCosto' single-chip platform to offer affordable GSM/GPRS handsets.

Apart from eCosto, TI has also launched the OMAP3, a single chip platform for advanced high-end 3G applications like video-conferencing on handsets.

Edited December 19, 2006 by tanveer

[KumaarShah 143]

Great news. But will these people develop some phones for CDMA also? Hope they do and then it would be of use to us.

Enjoyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

[anujit 0]

eCosto only supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Looks like WCDMA or HSDPA is not supported. I cant think of a reason why.... especially if it's supposed to be 3G platform.