Consumer Electronics company Sharp, best known for its LCD TV technology, handsets and Charge Couple Devices for cameras, has decided to enter the market for mobile TV chips, out of the blue, announcing a dual standard DVB-H and T-DMB chip, which means it will fit into most mobile TV markets except its own in Japan, where ISDB-T is used.
Dubbed the VA3B5EZ915 the dual-mode tuner was described as a world first and the lowest power device on the market, when it is clearly neither. In fact its existing handset mobile chip vendor, Frontier Silicon offers something very similar, and we think this is in fact a module, possibly with a Frontier chip and a bought in radio, but we can’t be sure at the present. Also another of the existing players, Siano Mobile Silicon, has also offered a dual mode device for over a year.
The aim is to pick up on the Korean T-DMB sales, which are still ramping, as well as the considerable international interest in DVB-H, which should see something like a 50% market share globally over the next few years and potentially hundreds of millions of chip shipments.
Sharp says the chip can receive both DVB-H and T-DMB broadcasts, has an average power consumption of 43 mW in DVB-H mode, but 190 mW in T-DMB mode, which are both very similar to other product specs. It has a thin-profile package size of 8mm by 8mm by 1.25mm, and is likely to cost 20,000 yen (or $164) which of course is a stupid price, cited only for samples of ones and twos. The real price would have to be closer to $10 to have any chance.
Samples run off the production line in July and Sharp hopes to be making 300,000 of these each month and the chip will be able to work in VHF,
UHF and L-band spectrum. This type of lateness of entry into the market is likely to win Sharp very few friends and very likely it will only end up supplying its own handsets.