Single chip, low cost mobiles by year-end

Bangalore, Mar 28: Texas Instruments, a global leader in Digial Signal Processor, Analog technologies and semiconductor solutions, today (Mar 28, 2006) announced that it will roll out by the year-end the much-awaited single chip, low cost cell phones developed by it.

Addressing newspersons here, company President and CEO Richard K Templeton said the phones were in experimental stage now. Mobile phone majors Nokia, Samsung and Motorola have been supplied samples.

Stating that the company would continue to focus on growing opportunities in the communication and entertainment sectors in India and globally, he said the company was committed to technology innovation in India and help its customers take advantage of it. The enormous consumer population, combined with the intellectual capacity available in the country, would impact markets all over the world for many years in the future, he added.

Mr Templeton said the company recognised India not only as a strong and growing market for semiconductors, but also as a place where new ideas helped shape the direction of technology. The mobile phone sector in the country had registered an impressive growth of over 87 per cent in 2005, totalling over 75 to 80 million users and over five million new users joined the club in December last alone.

He said that by 2020, the total mobile users in the country was expected to reach 250 to 300 million and over 500 million by 2050.

''With its wealth of development expertise and a huge, growing market, India is well positioned to be a leading player in this new era of communication and entertainment. It's an exciting time to be working in India and Texas Instruments is committed to building strong relationships with our customers here and helping them to be successful.''

Outlining the company's future plan, Mr Templeton said its India focus was clear on continued innovation in the development of complex semiconductor solutions, coupled with addressing the Indian market for semiconductor products. With increased electronic product design and manufacturing activities in India, the company saw significant market opportunities to add value to its customers.

The electronic product companies were setting up manufacturing bases in India and expanding their capacity to meet the burgeoning domestic demand, which had resulted in bringing more vigour to the semiconductor industry.

UNI