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Open Standards for Cell Phone Components

Posted by timothy on from the snap-together dept.

PoisonousPhat writes "STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Nokia and ARM have formed the Mobile Industry Processor Interface Alliance (MIPI), who seek to define open standards for cell phone components. Forget that expensive camera phone, just plug in a third-party device." Update: 07/30 18:13 GMT by T : Thanks to Alain Mellan for the link to STMicroelectronics.

17 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by vasqzr · · Score: 3, Interesting


    I bet it will be like PC standards are. Nobody really conforms to all of them, 100%. Plus, there are so many standards, you're not gauranteed anything.

  2. I need a charge by maroon_dog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I been wanting a standard interface just for recharging. I hate buying new recharging equipment (desktop, cigarette lighter, etc.) every time I get a new phone. I also hate buying multiple versions of charging equipment for the multiple cell phones in my household.

    1. Re:I need a charge by prof+pylons · · Score: 2, Interesting

      These guys have an idea I wish I'd thought of first. Charging mobile devices (Mobiles/PDA's) by way of an inductive mat. Can't find anywhere that actually sells them though...

  3. Good idea, this has worked so well for laptops by Hairy_Potter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This has worked so well with laptops, which are much bigger and more expensive than cell phones, so there's obviously more of a demand for it.

    I can take any laptop, and swap hard drives. And I can swap, well, PCMCIA cards.

    1. Re:Good idea, this has worked so well for laptops by swordboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This has worked so well with laptops

      What are you talking about? Beside the hard drive and PCMCIA, there is no standard.

      On that note, if a desktop LCD vendor were to buddy up with another LCD vendor and create a chassis and power spec for laptops, then we'd be talking. You can get a 15" LCD for dirt cheap these days. Throw it in an open standard chassis and plug in some power/battery and you've got a dirt cheap laptop. If you spill your beer on it, you can go out and buy a $10 keyboard and $100 mobo instead of getting sucked dry by the vendor.

      As a side note, if you break an LCD, the manufacturer will generally want to charge like 5x the normal desktop equivalent value to replace it. You will generally find that, if you are handy with a screwdriver, you can open up the housing and get the make/model info from the panel and replace it for a fraction of the cost. For example, you can buy a 15" IBM LCD monitor for a desktop and then pull the panel out and stick in in a laptop. You'll save about $600 in the process.

      In terms of cell phones... some standards would be nice but we'll never see anything beneficial to the end-user without gov't intervention.

      --

      Life is the leading cause of death in America.
    2. Re:Good idea, this has worked so well for laptops by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This has worked so well with laptops,

      Not...

      I cant swap CD drives, Power supplies are intentionally incompatable, batteries are intentionally different even from model to model.

      Hard drive trays are all different. There is NOTHING standard in laptops... the only reason that hard drives are the same is because the HDD manufacturers refuse to play the stupid games that Laptop makers play.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. That'll need a shift of policy from Nokia then... by Boss,+Pointy+Haired · · Score: 4, Interesting

    who insist on a completely new design of power supply and data cable for every phone that they bring out :(

  5. cool! by Catcher80 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This idea is good in theory. I've always wanted to get a cell phone and have the availability of nice features without having to spend outrageous prices. Now (in theory) I can buy a cell phone, basic model, and then buy an external device for whatever extra features I want, and have them work on the next phone I buy in 2 or 3 years if I want.

    There are a ton of possibilities for external things, they just need to design the OS for the Nokia phones, which also shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

    But you know this is going to be expensive as hell.

    --
    I sell out to The Man every day.
  6. Motorola? by grennis · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Whatever happened to Motorola? Palm and Apple both dropped the Motorola CPU line, and now you don't even see them mentioned as a candidate anymore.

    Motorola... The next Xerox??

  7. Missing by GeckoFood · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Strangely absent from that list is Motorola... This is probably a good thing, but their absence is very conspicuous.

    --
    Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
  8. For all the good a hardware standard will do ... by ralph_the_wonder_lla · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It will be undone by the competing standards for transmitting the signal (CDMA, GSM etc). It will still be impossible to move your phone from one service providers network to another (unless you are in Europe); which means you get to buy another phone. When they create a changeable module that will let you move the phone from provider A to provider B for substantially less than the cost of the phone, then cell phone sales/usage will go through the roof.

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    Kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich but the boss gets richer off you. --Dead Kennedys
  9. Enough with the feature bloat! by kneecarrot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With standardized cell-phone components, I am sure companies will be even more likely to stuff every last feature known to man onto their phones. Personally, I think it's getting ridiculous. I don't want to play Tony Hawk 4 on the 1" x 1" screen on my cell phone or struggle with watered down GPS functionality or grainy photos. On the other hand, what I do hope is that chargers become standardized. Now that would be something useful.

    --

    I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.

  10. Re:That'll need a shift of policy from Nokia then. by Urkki · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It used to be bad with Nokia chargers, but I think at least every 3 volt phone (everything since, oh, 1997?) has compatible charger connector. There may be some problems, like my gf's new 3650 doesn't like the old car charger for 6110, not sure why (the old wall charger for 6110 works just fine, so maybe the old car charger just can't give enough power for the new phone to charge properly).

    Data cables and handsfree headsets compatibility could be better though, but also that problem is going away with bluetooth, and IR has been there to replace data cables for a long time already.

    Then again, are any other manufacturers any better?

  11. I'm waiting for... by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...a cell phone that would have as "flexible" architecture as PC.

    Imagine this:
    - Case: Different looks, about same width but different lengths. It provides two or three "slider layers" that enable you to install components.

    - Necessities:
    a) GSM decoder module (your frequency variant, possible sat phone)
    b) Battery: Different sizes, different capacities. Separately a small power management module (change batteries, replace them, examine power levels, switch between batteries)
    c) Main CPU. Different speeds and possiblities.
    d) Internal memory (different sizes, may use more than one module)
    e) Keyboard (normal, big, different highlight colors, qwerty whole, qwerty 2-parts (on 2 sides of screen)
    f) Screen. Text-only, b&w, big, color, whatever you wish.
    g) Speaker and receiver. May be different inputs.
    h) SIM card socket. Possible double, triple, big, small...

    - Extras:
    MP3, Radio, FM, MIDI, IRDA, Bluetooth, USB, loud speaker, camera, TV pilot, whatever you imagine you can put in a phone.

    And the case provides a single bus you plug your modules in. Each module occupies certain number of "slots" (of course keyboard, battery and LCD are big. Toys like MP3 player take way less).

    You buy parts in variants you need. Want a good SMS'ing box? Qwerty and big b&w screen. Want gaming platform? Gamer's keyboard, color screen, strong CPU and a lot of memory. Want to keep it small? "mini" case and only necessary stuff of minimum sizes. Want a laptop-like thing? Carry a half-pound brick in your pocket with everything installed and 5 strongest batteries and built-in AC charger.

    Add to that fully or mostly open-source communication software layer so people could write their own apps for it...

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  12. a little background by Bagheera2000 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    TI/ARM/Nokia have been in bed together from the beginning of the cell market. With TI's OMAP structure(which includes and ARM and is the baseline for all of Nokia's future phones), it is not hard to believe that the three are trying to increase their market share by forcing out those nasty startups and the motorolas of the world. I can hear the sales pitch now, "and our software/hardware already meet the upcoming standard" Nokia has the software, TI/ARM the hardware. as for the various standards, change a couple analog components, and the they already have the software routines to handle it.

  13. Camera plug-ins never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    People who actually USE a camera function within a camera phone ONLY if it's on-board, not ATTACHED. Notably, Nokia 7250, Samsung V205, Sony Ericsson T610, and Panasonic GD87/88. People can standardize all they want, but the camera must be on-board. But still, the camera on phones is at best for party-shots and picture caller ID. Without a zoom-able lens or variable focus, it won't be useful for real photography. So keep your digital cameras for now. 6mp and 7mp are just around the corner =)

  14. Cooperation? by bryam · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ummm...Tjis consortium could be cooperate with this.

    Hey Nokia: remember that you are from Finland ;-)