Sony Makes Tiny TV Tuner Chip for Mobile Phones

One of the problems current mobile video solutions have is the high cost of mobile video services. With a one-to-one "monocast", there are no economies of scale, and every person on the network who chooses to see a video adds to the network congestion. The solution is to somehow broadcast video to mobile phones, but the size and battery consumption of a TV tuner have proved challenging for the mobile devices. Now Sony has developed Sony has developed a TV tuner chip that will grab digital TV signals, and can turn the mobile phone into a TV. The sample module will sell for 50,000 yen ($445), but that price is just the current cost for hardware vendors who wish to prototype with the chip. Eventually, the chips will have to sell for $20 or less to be included in mobile handsets. Now we just need someone to get TiVo onto mobiles... Update by Mike Tsk, tsk, Derek. This story comes just a week after we wrote the exact same thing - including the TiVo crack - about Samsung's similar offering. That's what happens when Derek is on the road and not reading Techdirt... Response: Touche! What scares me most is we both made the same joke.

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