Instrumental to chip success
Published: 02 Sep 2005 11:05 BST
...it has really explosive impact.
Going the other way, we're on our way to having upward of maybe five radios or six radios: triband, baseband, GPS. Wireless LAN is getting embedded into these phones. Bluetooth is getting embedded into these phones. We're putting digital TV into these phones. Every one of those are radios. But there is a limit in how many radios you can add because people need low power and consolidation.
If you think about the fact that we could now put the RF with that digital radio into the baseband circuit itself, we can use classic semiconductor manufacturing skills to integrate multiple radios down on to the baseband. You'll find that same capability that we're doing to drive low-end phones continue to work its way up the scale as well.
Do you think consumers are going to get to the point where the phone is good enough?
The US is a lousy laboratory to evaluate this because we're happy if we can get a connection. But go to Japan and take a look at what people are doing with mobile phones. They'll be watching TV on mobile phones not too far into 2006. DoCoMo is looking at embedding payment and scanning using RFID. Everybody thought that camera phones were a novelty four years ago. You can't buy a phone now without a camera, and maybe the next one is a camcorder. Just like we observed the PC industry in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the creative experimentation that's taking place is higher than ever. That's usually a good leading indicator that there will be more demand in the future, rather than less.
Will there ever be a "TI Inside" campaign for you guys?
TI will be sponsoring a car in NASCAR as part of DLP, and that's the area where we will be on brand recognition. There are local electronics retailers saying, 'I want to buy a DLP TV.' You'll see more advertising on [American] football. OEM customers want us building DLP image recognition, so that they can sell more DLP-based TVs in that market place. But if you go into the [mobile] world, the Nokias and the Motorolas and Samsungs are not looking for a TI brand sitting on their phones.
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