Earlier this week, Qualcomm unveiled a new chipset, the MSM 7227, for sub-US$150 smartphones. It promises advanced processing, rich multimedia, as well as HSDPA /HSUPA connectivity.
“We see a significant opportunity to bring the best features of today’s Smartphones to the mass-market segment,” said Alex Katouzian, vice president of product management, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “Our new MSM7227 chipset offers manufacturers an attractive blend of performance and price, software re-use from the prior MSM7xxx-series products, and support for the industry’s leading mobile operating systems.”
The MSM7227 chipset packs a 600Mhz application processor, a 320 MHz application DSP, a 400 MHz modem processor, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, integrated Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS, 8 megapixel camera and 30 fps WVGA video encode and decode and display support, all in a 12 by 12 millimeter footprint. It also promises lower power consumption than older MSM 7xxx chipsets. It will support all leading mobile operating systems, including Android, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile.
Smartphones using the new MSM7227 chipsets are expected to be available later this year.