TI puts hope on new 3G phones in Japan
October 19, 2002
Mobile phone microchip makers Texas Instruments (TI) hopes for
a big boost from next generation handsets that will be launched
this year in Japan.
Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo will launch new handsets with
longer lasting battery life and other new features to improve 3G
experience. Previous 3G phones released in Japan suffer from short
battery life and has been a critical factor for the lack of 3G users
despite the high speed internet access.
Nigel Dixon, general manager of TI's wireless terminals unit in
Japan, said, "We believe our Japanese customers with these advanced
products will move out of Japan into the worldwide market and be
very successful."
He has high hopes TI's new OMAP wireless chip architecture. Japanese
handset maker NEC has decided to incorporate OMAP in future handsets.
Their first 3G handset used an application processor from Intel
but has abandoned the PC processor maker because their chips lack
digital signal processing.
Even so, TI is under threat from other developments. The joint
project by NEC and Matsushita to develop a 3G baseband chip is seen
as a potential competitor to an OMAP baseband chip under development
at TI.
"One of our strengths as telecoms equipment makers is in developing
wideband (baseband) processors," said Susumu Uriya, a senior NEC
mobile engineer, in a recent interview.
"My sense is we're about one year ahead (of TI) on this," he continued.
DoCoMo President Keiji Tachikawa believes new 3G handsets released
by pre-Christmas will attract more subscribers to its FOMA service,
which has been lagging.
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3G Motorola A920
