July 14, 2005
Low Cost Handsets On The Way
German microprocessor manufacturer, Infineon, has revealed details of a low-cost chipset for mobile phones that could see the cost of basic models fall below £15 ($26.40).
"The new chipset manages to cut the number of components from 200 to 100 by integrating the send and receive electronics onto the main processor. As a result a large number of resistors, capacitors and other electronic components aren't required and there's a corresponding freeing-up of space inside the handset as well.
What this means is extra room for batteries as Infineon think a handset equipped with the new chipset might have 10 days of standby time and 4 hours of talk time.
Ultra low-cost handsets are a boom market with GSM networks springing up across the developing world, where more people want to enjoy the benefits of mobile communications, but place little value on applications such as camera and video features, web browser, music player and games.
150 million ultra low-cost handsets are predicted to be sold throughout the world in 2010.
[via TechSmec
Related:
-- Philips Develops Platform for $20 Cell Phones
-- Hop-on's Low Cost Phones Set For Mass Production
-- Motorola to sell phones for less than $40 in emerging markets
-- Microsoft Peabody phone will be aimed at mass market]
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