Broadcom to Bring VoIP, Other Features to IP Multimedia Phones with New Platform

Eyeing a fertile IP media phone market as it seeks to rebound from sharp losses in 2008, an Irvine, California-based chip company today announced that it’s unveiling a new platform for low cost and low power IP phones.

 

Officials from Broadcom Corporation – which provides system-on-a-chip and software solutions to makers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products and mobile devices – say their so-called “Persona” design platform is based on the company’s flagship BCM11107 VoIP processor.

 

The platform is designed to bring multimedia capabilities, audio, switching and security to enterprise and consumer IP phones.

 

According to Martyn Humphries, vice president and general manager for Broadcom’s (News - Alert) VoIP business, next-generation IP phones are positioned to become the central communications portal of both the office and home, enabling users with advanced applications to take advantage of multimedia features, streaming video and touch screen interfaces.

 

“Multimedia functionality should ultimately increase user efficiency, and productivity thereby accelerating high quality, advanced IP communications devices in the enterprise and a high quality experience in the home,” Humphries said.

 

Industry analysts agree.

 

As TMCnet reported, In-Stat believes that consumer media phones will generate between $4 billion and $8 billion in annual revenue worldwide by 2013, and that business media phones will generate about $3.3 billion in annual revenue by that time, with the U.S. market will open up this year, with Europe coming online in 2010.

 

TMC (News - Alert) President and Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani last week wrote here about one new entry to the market, Grandstream Networks’ GXV3140 IP model (pictured right).

 

According to Tehrani, the color screen is 4.3 inches with 480x272 resolution and the camera supports 1.3 megapixels. There is support for a stereo headset with microphone, wideband/HD voice support, TV output, 3 SIP accounts with line switching support, MPLS, SIPS, AES, NAT traversal, H.264, 2X (News - Alert) optical zoom, 30 FPS support, PIP, audio mute, camera block and more, Tehrani writes.

 

“Music formats supported include AAC, MP3, WMA, Real and others,” he writes. “There is also language support for English, Chinese, Spanish, German, French and more on the way. This is quite a phone in terms of raw features and we can expect to see these becoming a baseline phone for executives, knowledge workers and impromptu SMB conference areas.”

 

That kind of functionality is driving companies such as Broadcom toward a market that – at least in Broadcom’s case – could help reverse a generally downward trend since this recession took hold in earnest late last summer.

 

As TMCnet reported, in an economy that’s hit semiconductor makers especially hard, Broadcom posted a 13.2 percent sequential drop, to $1.28 billion, for the fourth quarter of 2008

 

Officials at Broadcom said their company posted a net loss of 32 cents per share, or $159.2 million, for the three-month period that ended Dec. 31.

 

Yet there is hope.

 

As officials at Broadcom note, enterprise telephony is migrating from digital infrastructure to IP-based communications, and phone manufacturers must deliver distinct feature sets for a range of IP device categories from low-end, value phones to high-end multimedia terminals with user interfaces and advanced applications similar to today’s popular smartphones.

 

“At the same time, economic and environmental concerns are forcing manufacturers to generate lower cost IP phone designs that serve the growing demand for greener solutions,” Broadcom says. “The Persona platform addresses these trends, enabling customers to design a full line of IP phones and multimedia appliances with the cutting-edge features, robust security, low power consumption and proven Gigabit Ethernet capabilities that enterprise markets require.”