Multimedia not limited to developed markets, chipmaker contends

Multimedia capabilities in phones are not just in demand in mature markets, but are also sought after in developing markets, according to Raj Talluri, general manager of cellular media systems solutions for Texas Instruments Inc.’s wireless terminals business unit.
Talluri said during a TI Web cast last week that features such as cameras, video recorders, music playing and FM radio capabilities are key drivers behind the increasing demand for handsets, which are expected to reach 4 billion in circulation by 2010. The other factors are new subscribers in developing countries who have never had a wireless device, as well as current wireless customers who wish to upgrade their handsets.
Talluri noted that even in developing markets such as China and India, the majority of phones have color screens and that advanced features are popular, even though the prices of the phones must be set relatively low in those markets. Although the quality of the features-such as the number of megapixels available on the camera phone and the recording quality of the video recorder-vary according to price, Talluri said that the basic features are nonetheless available and expected to become more so in those markets.
“The phones’ selling prices are not very high, but . multimedia is becoming an important feature across the segment, from the high-end phone to the low end,” Talluri said.
Talluri described a continuum of products that nonetheless offer multimedia capabilities at each tier of price-from basic VGA cameras and elementary graphics capabilities at the low end, to cameras with five to 12 megapixels and advanced graphics at the highest tier of smartphones.
At the high end of the market, Talluri said, graphical capability is one of the key features driving the market-not just game-playing capability, Talluri said, but high-quality user interfaces-as well as the high-resolution cameras and videos with sufficient quality that they could replace a separate video camera and the content could be played back via television.