New chip to drive cheaper mobiles

Qualcomm has unveiled several chips designed to underpin inexpensive mobile phones with MP3 players and cameras, pitched at emerging handset markets in Latin America, India and China.

The three new processors - the 6010, 6020 and 6030 - are the first in Qualcomm's line of single-chip products. Each contains everything - the modem, radio transceiver, power management, multimedia engine and security features - it takes to make a basic mobile phone. Single-chip mobiles, in theory, reduce handset makers' costs, which translates to lower-priced phones for markets where mobile phone penetration is very low.

The line-up is a sign of how single-chip design is becoming more attractive to handset makers. Texas Instruments, a major provider of mobile processors, has already announced it has developed a single chip for mobile phones, while handset maker Nokia has one in development.

Qualcomm's new chips should enable manufacturers to create a less-expensive version of phones using its CDMA 1X standard. (Two years ago, the technology was the power behind state-of-the-art phones, but those handsets have since been supplanted by faster and more processing-heavy models.) The newly released 6020 chips, for instance, support MP3 players, and the 6030 can handle both a camera and a music player.

It is likely the chips will have more of an impact on the ultimate price of MP3 phones, which mobile service providers typically sell for $50 or more. Camera phones have already joined the class of phones that network operators all but give away in exchange for getting people to sign up to a service contract.

CDMA 1X operator Verizon Wireless, for example, has sold two camera phones for a total of $50 as part of a website special in the US.

Qualcomm intends to provide samples of the chips before March 2006, it said in a statement. The San Diego-based company did not respond to a request for comment on how much phones using the single chips would cost.

Ben Charny writes for CNET News.com