We honestly didn't see this one coming; Panasonic is suggesting that they could offer MediaFLO phones on AT&T featuring plasma screens.
New low-voltage plasma technology, partly sourced from AbleComm, will enable plasma video displays for cell phones to use with AT&T's recently announced MediaFLO service, or Verizon Wireless' MediaFLO service for that matter. At a press conference Tuesday, Panasonic's Mark Balsama revealed plans to incorporate newly developed, miniature plasma displays in telephone products.
"For nearly a decade, Panasonic's engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact plasma display. We have recently reached a licensing agreement for some key technology with product developer AbleComm. We will be able to incorporate miniature plasma displays into both consumer and business telephone products starting this fall. They will rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money", said Mark Balsama.
Balsama continued, "Many of our new phones will have vibrant color plasma screens that can run on just 1.5 volts and won't require any additional wiring or special power supplies. We'll be able to put plasma in cell phones, business phones, consumer phones, corded phones, cordless phones, and even door intercom monitors and fax machines".
Panasonic also expects to replace LCD screens in many applications, such as camera viewfinders, MP3 players and digital photo frames. According to Panasonic, HP will be supplied with mini plasma screens for an exclusive period of two years for use in their printers.
It's also worth noting that Panasonic will still continue to develop LCD HDTVs at large scale, but are obviously not going to pull out of the Plasma HDTV market anytime soon. On the contrary, Panasonic sees new opportunities in Plasma HDTVs now that Pioneer and Fujitsu have exited as manufacturers in this market. At CES 2008 we spent time with several impressing Plasma HDTVs, featuring significantly improved plasma technology that are worth checking out here.
About three years ago, we reviewed Panasonic's VS3 and VS6 cell phones, and we still remember the extreme brightness of those displays despite being LCD displays. It'll be interesting to see how well the new plasma technology will compete with OLED displays in the race of replacing today's mediocre cell phone LCD displays.
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Top 15
|
|
|
» Search (New!)
Search by cell phone features
|
|
|
» Manual comparison (New!)
Select up to 4 cell phones side-by-side
|
|
|
» By release
October 2008, November 2008, December 2008
|
|
|
» Top 15 by carrier
Unlocked, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Helio, Alltel
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by user type
Average Joe, Business users, Calling addicts, Fashion conscious users, Globetrotters, High-res addicts, Internet addicts, Multimedia enthusiasts, Music aficionados, Outdoor enthusiasts, TV addicts, Video lovers, More...
|
|
|
» Top 15 by brand
Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia,
BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson Other
|
|
|
» Top 15 by platform
Palm OS, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by cell phone type
Business smartphones, Multimedia smartphones
Consumer QWERTY phones, Multimedia phones
Concept phones
|
|
|
|
|
_it00.jpg)
|
Archive