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Nokia, chipmakers form alliance to speed design
New York, July 30: Three chipmakers and Nokia, the world`s largest maker of mobile phones, formed an alliance on Tuesday that hopes to attract dozens of rivals and put the design of new phones on a faster footing.
New York, July 30: Three chipmakers and Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, formed an alliance on Tuesday that hopes to attract dozens of rivals and put the design of new phones on a faster footing.
STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments said they had formed an alliance to spur development of a wider range of wireless features and to guard against any one industry player dominating the new generation of phones.
Wireless equipment makers are struggling to dig themselves out from a slow transition to a new generation of mobile phones that offer Internet and computer features and not just voice calling. Critics say the lack of affordable new features have delayed consumers from snatching up the news devices.
The companies said they would be joined in the alliance by Nokia, manufacturer of more than one-third of the mobile phones sold worldwide, and ARM, a designer of core processor chips used in most wireless phones.
The four initial members of what is being called the Mobile Industry Processor Interface, or MIPI, Alliance said they would recruit other phone, hardware and software vendors to help define the technology building blocks of new phone features.
Common rules are needed because the wide variety of phones, networks and software can fail to work together properly when using advanced services such as picture messaging, e-mail, calendars, games and video camera phones.
"It's intended to include hundreds of companies. It is not exclusive of any companies," said Tom Vial, manager of strategic alliances for Texas Instruments' wireless business. "You will see many leadership companies in each product category," he said of the group's hopes of attracting members.
Bureau Report
STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments said they had formed an alliance to spur development of a wider range of wireless features and to guard against any one industry player dominating the new generation of phones.
Wireless equipment makers are struggling to dig themselves out from a slow transition to a new generation of mobile phones that offer Internet and computer features and not just voice calling. Critics say the lack of affordable new features have delayed consumers from snatching up the news devices.
The companies said they would be joined in the alliance by Nokia, manufacturer of more than one-third of the mobile phones sold worldwide, and ARM, a designer of core processor chips used in most wireless phones.
The four initial members of what is being called the Mobile Industry Processor Interface, or MIPI, Alliance said they would recruit other phone, hardware and software vendors to help define the technology building blocks of new phone features.
Common rules are needed because the wide variety of phones, networks and software can fail to work together properly when using advanced services such as picture messaging, e-mail, calendars, games and video camera phones.
"It's intended to include hundreds of companies. It is not exclusive of any companies," said Tom Vial, manager of strategic alliances for Texas Instruments' wireless business. "You will see many leadership companies in each product category," he said of the group's hopes of attracting members.
Bureau Report