Texas Instruments Inc.'s long courtship of Samsung Electronics Co. has yielded more results. The companies announced Monday that they have worked together to produce a set of phones that can display TV programs. The announcement is significant for Dallas-based TI, which has been trying for some time to get the Korean electronics giant more interested in its chips for cellphones.

Samsung was the No. 3 maker of handsets in 2004, and its market share has been growing quickly. The TV phones, announced at an industry conference in Taiwan, use TI's applications processor chip for cellphones.

For now, the phones can only work in South Korea. They receive TV images via satellite through technology called Digital Media Broadcasting, or DMB. Three TV networks operate on satellite DMB in South Korea, and Samsung is trying to push the format into Germany and other countries. Satellite DMB can reach a wide area but requires line of sight to receive a signal. So phones may lose their TV signals in tunnels or inside buildings. DMB can also be broadcast via terrestrial towers, a technology that offers a more powerful signal.

Other companies, including TI customer Nokia Oyj, are pushing various formats for cellphone TV. Nokia and Houston-based Crown Castle International Corp. have tested TV on cellphones in Pittsburgh. TI is developing chips for Nokia's favored standard, called Digital Video Broadcasting — Handheld, or DVB-H.

Although TI makes a chip that handles wireless communications, rival Qualcomm Inc. of San Diego has long provided that technology to Samsung. TI supplies Samsung with chips for other devices, such as digital cameras. In January, it announced it had finally made progress on the wireless front, supplying image processors for four Samsung phones. TI hopes the TV phone relationship will lead to a long-lasting bond with Samsung.

"We hope to proliferate and expand our relationship in mobile TVs toward whatever standards and products" Samsung pursues, said Fred Cohen, TI's senior director for strategic account management.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved