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Cell Phone On A Chip

Posted by michael on from the beam-me-up dept.

sebFlyte writes "Texas Instruments have developed a new chip for mobiles that, according to some, should make is possible to make a cell phone for less than $25, bringing it into the realm of possibilities for low-level corporate giveaways, or a reasonable loss leader for getting people started on pay-as-you go mobile offerings."

16 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Pointless policy at work? by sanityspeech · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From the article:

    Mobile phones contain a number of potentially dangerous substances, such as arsenic, cadmium, ZINC and lead, which can harm the environmental if the handset is not disposed of in a responsible manner.

    Oh really? So, why in the world is there this incredible push to make lead-free devices, when it appears that the zinc alloys seem to be the most-likely substitute for lead?

    I'm fairly green myself. The question I have is, why adopt whack-a-mole policies that are likely to replace current problems with other problems?

    1. Re:Pointless policy at work? by WhiplashII · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I think the real advantage here will be low power and high reliability, not in disposable phones. I mean, I can see how you would want to be able to destroy your phone every once in a while - but where is the market crying out for a disposable phone? Who's life does it improve? I think people will continue to keep their phones for about a year.

      Incidently, by integrating everything on a chip they should have greatly reduced the amount of dangerous stuff - even the battery for this will probably be smaller.

      --
      while (sig==sig) sig=!sig;
  2. On a Chip? by NardofDoom · · Score: 4, Funny

    But how will I play games/take pictures/text my friends/browse the Internet/watch TV/cook a burrito/wash my laundry! This thing will never sell.

    --
    You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
  3. But... by th1ckasabr1ck · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "It could be like the watch market of twenty of thirty years ago, when companies could give away a watch with their corporate branding,"

    But you don't need to sign up for a service plan to wear a watch...

  4. Start with just making PHONES by Trolling4Columbine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't want to take pictures with my phone.
    I don't want to play MP3s with my phone.
    I don't want to check my e-mail with my phone.
    I don't want to browse the web with my phone.
    I don't want to play games with my phone.

    I just want to make phone calls with my phone. Want to lower the average price of a cell-phone? Start with taking all of that crap out of it.

    --
    Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
    1. Re:Start with just making PHONES by toxf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't want to carry around my camera.
      I don't want a bulky portable music player.
      I don't want to have to stay in my office to stay in touch.
      I don't want to have to call a recording service to check movie times.
      I don't want to have to buy cargo pants and add pockets.

      I want my life to be simpler, smaller, and richer. Being chained to my desk, or carrying around 5 devices and a backpack-full of cables is not appealing to me.

      Everyone's got their goals.

    2. Re:Start with just making PHONES by blackmonday · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't get it. You can already buy many, many phones that do nothing but make phone calls. Look at any provider's web page, and they're gonna have starter phones that don't have the new in-demand fancy features. (and that's why they sell them, because people want to buy them)

      Hey, buy a used Motorola V66. It's a great phone, makes good calls and is inexpensive. You can still get all the accessories and batteries. Its small and has a metal casing, and it looks cool.

      It amuses me that the web site with the most tech-savvy members continually finds new technologies "crap" and this attitude is modded up as insightful. Don't we want phones that do *more* things, that cost the same as our old shittier, bulkier phones?

    3. Re:Start with just making PHONES by GeorgeH · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't want to edit pictures with my gaming computer.
      I don't want to play MP3s with picture editing computer.
      I don't want to check my e-mail with my MP3 computer.
      I don't want to browse the web with my e-mail computer.
      I don't want to play games with my web browsing computer.

      I just want to type documents in Word with my computer. Want to lower the average price of a computer? Start with taking all of that crap out of it.

      --
      Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
  5. A solution looking for a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem isn't the cost of the phone. It's the cost of the service that keeps me out of the market.

  6. Re:paper cell? by Smallpond · · Score: 5, Funny

    They folded.

    Hah! I kill me.

  7. Tiny by StevenHenderson · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sweet...one step closer to Zoolander phones!

  8. He-he by ceeam · · Score: 4, Funny
    "hould make is possible to make a cell phone for less than $25, bringing it into the realm of possibilities for low-level corporate giveaways, or a reasonable loss leader for getting people started on pay-as-you go mobile offerings"

    /me giggling quietly as typing this

    Americans, eh? :)

  9. How about a cheap, non-disposable phone? by Japong · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think there's a growing population who just wants a plain cell phone now.

    You know, for talking on - instead of having bluetooth, a built in camera, FM-Tuner, an internet service that costs $10/1 megabyte, pager and orchestrated ringtones.

    If I could buy a new (possibly smaller, lighter, more battery-efficent) cell phone I would - but stores don't carry anything that basic. You have to spend at least $100 (CDN) for anything wihout a plan, and I'm sure the lion's share of that is going towards a colour screen and features I don't want.

    Almost makes me yearn for an Apple iPhone. Does what it should, elgantly and without any extra "fluff".

  10. invisible cells by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Putting a "cellphone" on a chip for $10 is not just good news for cheap "cellphones". It's great news for putting everything on the Internet, along with the simple human interface that is the 12-key pad and voice. Back through the early 20th Century, motors were big, complex, inefficient and expensive enough that motors were a separate industry. Factories used to have a single motor, like a mill or animal-driven cogwheel, its power distributed through the enterprise over pulleys, ropes and chains. Once motors became cheap commodities, simple to integrate, motors became commonplace enough to become invisible, and the motor industry was subsumed into the larger electronics and transportation industries they enable. Now that cellphones are becoming similarly mundane components, we can start to forget about them, and the era when immediate communication among people and devices required a second thought.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  11. Maximum Functionality at Minimal Price Point by reporter · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The marketing idea that Texas Instruments (TI) has developed is a rehash of an old idea: set a low price point and maximize the amount of functionality that can be sold at that point. One of the earliest examples is the VIC-20 computer from Commodore. It set the price of the contraption at (I think) $199.95, and then the engineers put as much functionality as they could into the product at the price point. The VIC was a smashing success even though William Shatner (ouch!) served as the spokesmodel.

    Here, TI is setting a low price point for the chip/chipset and cramming as much functionality as TI's engineers can force into the chip/chipset. Over time, such efforts become easier because the feature size of integrated circuits becomes smaller, and you can simply put more "stuff" into a fixed area of chip. Further, the area of the chip determines its price to a first-order approximation.

    I wish that someone would do another VIC-20. For $200.00, I bet that we could get an awesome computer, but I doubt that any of the traditional companies like HP, IBM, and Sony would be interested. The profit margin would be minimal. So, these companies continue to set a high price point, say, $2000.00, and sell a system with commensurate functionality -- a lot of functionality that I simply do not need for reading e-mail and posting articles to SlashDot.

  12. Re:I folded and got a phone by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "I was an early adopter of cellphones, my first was the old flip phone."

    No, no, no. I was an "early adopter" of cell phones. Mine was the size fo a VCR and came with its own handy carrying case that was bigger than my wife's purse.

    Back to your point though, most cellular contracts have a backout period. I know I had 15 days with Nextel to bring my phones back if I wanted to back out of the contract. Seeing as Nextel didn't pick up at my house, I dropped them and went to Cingular within that timeframe. The Nextel salesman did tell me that I couldn't do that, but I calmly pointed out where it was written in the contract and after some arguing he gave in and cancelled our contracts. It might already be too late for you, but check your contract and see if you have a way to back out.