TV tuner finds first handset niche

Microtune has received its first volume purchase order for its new DVB-H tuner.

Reinforcing its market success in bringing advanced silicon TV tuners to portable consumer products, Microtune has recently received its first volume purchase order for its new DVB-H tuner.

Microtune's Mobile MicroTuner MT2260 is slated for deployment in a handset of one of the industry's top mobile phone manufacturers.

Last week, the company began shipping its first production order for this DVB-H tuner.

Microtune's Mobile MicroTuner chip is a high-performance, ultra-low-power tuner that, when integrated into handheld TV devices, permits users to watch multichannel broadcast TV with full-motion digital pictures and near CD-quality sound.

Microtune is currently accepting production orders for the two chips in its Mobile MicroTuner family.

The MT2260 is a multiband single-chip tuner designed to support US and European handset devices based on the digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) industry standard.

The MT2262 is a single-band tuner supporting the L-band frequency range dedicated to mobile TV broadcast service in the USA.

"TV reception on mobile devices is a natural evolution for the digital TV industry", said Anna Hunt, Research Director, IMS Research.

"DVB-H has emerged as one of the most prominent broadcast standards for this application, with launches of DVB-H services expected in Germany, Italy and the USA in 2006 and 2007, and with trials continuing in many other parts of the world".

"The world's leading handset manufacturers are already gearing up to commercially deploy DVB-H-enabled handsets in mass-market quantities".

"By the turn of the decade, it is likely that mobile TV capability will become a must-have feature for manufacturers of all types of portable multimedia devices".

"The tuner is a key building block of mobile TV handsets, and of all the components in a handset, it is the one that determines high-quality and reliable TV reception for users".

"Tuner performance will be a key differentiator in the marketplace, we believe, and will be a crucial factor in driving mobile TV into the mainstream", said James A Fontaine, President and CEO Microtune.

"Our DVB-H tuners are based on technology that is deployed today in consumer electronics products ranging from giant-screen HDTVs to thumb-sise USB PC-TV sticks", added Fontaine.

"With our Mobile MicroTuner family, manufacturers gain the performance and reliability advantages of our customer-hardened and market-proven single-chip tuners".

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