Disqus
The chipset space is the most exciting part of the mobile industry right now. That’s my personal opinion, and I’m sure I’ll be called a heretic by most of you since the theme these days is software, software, and more software. Thanks to consolidation, and heavy doses of competition, chances are that your next mobile phone is going to carry either Android, Symbian or some flavor of Windows Mobile. You can also do everything you need to do, regardless of which mobile operating system, without much difficulty when it comes to switching platforms. So what makes one device better than the other?
Color, build quality, materials, specifications, the good old fashioned things. I don’t want to say we’re back in 2006, back when software didn’t matter, but spec sheets did, because if these past few years taught us anything is that software does matter, a lot, but to paraphrase the Microsoft press conference yesterday: mobile phones are increasingly all starting to look the same and they all work the same way too.
Why do I bring all of this up? The mobile space now feels like the PC space in the 90s, back when every few months we got a hell of an increase in performance. The mobile industry is finally growing up to the point where every new generation brings about more and more change. It’s not like the 00s, when your new phone was exactly like your old phone, but had a better camera. Now you get a better camera, better processor, better screen, better everything.
Qualcomm is dominating today’s space because they sell platforms with radios built in. NVIDIA is trying to enter the mobile space with Tegra, but they need to learn that people want connectivity above all else. Intensive graphical power is one thing, texting your girlfriend is another. Texas Instruments is about to learn that lesson too with the release of their OMAP 4 Blaze Development Platform.
This device is not for folks like me or you, it’s for hardware developers, to show them everything that TI chips, both platforms and dedicated chips, can do. With Blaze you get the OMAP 4 platform (ARM Cortex A9 based), 2x 3.7 inch screen, 3x cameras, enough sensors to measure everything short of your blood sugar level, and WiFi. It’s impressive, but without 3G … what’s the point?
Expect to see the OMAP 4 being mass produced by the end of this year. When they’ll be in devices is anyone’s guess, I’ll be betting on end of 2011.
[Via: Press Release]
About The Author
Stefan Constantinescu
Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.
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Brian
