Mobile Phones with HDMI Support and HD Resolution Display for Consumer Market in 2009

Do you really need a HD (High Definition) resolution on your mobile phone display? You may not need that for now due to its small screen size, typically 2-inches and most of the time, 800 X 600 or even lower resolution is sufficient for mobile platform. Anyhow, in view of even greater feature sets to be incorporated in next generation mobile units, some of the mobile phone components manufacturers have started to look into the feasibility to integrate processor with HD decode capability into mobile phones. All these HD processors are capable of decoding up to 1280 X 720 resolution HD video at frame rate of 30 fps.

One of the usage models could be the miniature TV projection using mobile device that can be beneficial from the new technology integration. Just imagine, although you have the capability to project the media contents on the wall, but if the resolution is too low to be visible, then it may not be as attractive as having a HD media playback with greater visual experience.

There are still few design constraints that need to be resolved before the actual mobile units with HD capability can be realized. First and most importantly, the huge power consumption for the HD decoding module has to be reduced to fit into mobile’s power requirement. Secondly, the HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) has to be redesigned specifically for the mobile platform so that the usage model can be extended to be compatible with other HD devices in existing market. Even the current Type C HDMI 1.3 compliant connector is said to be too huge to be implemented into current mobile phones.
We should foresee the HD mobile processors to be available some times in year 2009. Some of the processor manufacturers include NVIDIA Corp, Texas Instrument Inc. and Renesas Technology are among the first few pioneers that are going to break the generation.