Broadcom Corp.’s purchase of AMD’s TV group today could mean lower-priced digital TVs for everyone. But the Irvine chipmaker hinted at other high-tech possibilities, such as a Bluetooth TV that will talk to your cell phone.
Its engineers have a bunch of technologies to choose from: Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi and cell phone communication. Broadcom chips, after all, have made it into the Apple iPhone and Nintendo Wii. By mixing and matching, Broadcom gave me some examples of how else the TV can change.
“We’re looking to add Bluetooth so when your cell phone would ring, the caller ID pops up on TV. Or use Bluetooth headsets to listen to TV. Or beam a picture taken on the phone and show it on the TV. We obviously want to take advantage of what we have,” said Daniel Marotta, Broadcom’s senior vice president and general manager of its Broadband Communications Group.
Marotta said that Broadcom has already shown how to integrate wireless with TV.
“We see customers today putting in Ethernet ports but asking for Wi-Fi because even though Ethernet is inexpensive, it requires some consumer saavy. But if you have Wi-Fi, like on Nintendo’s Wii, it’s pretty straightforward,” Marotta said.
Wi-Fi TVs aren’t new. Sharp launched and abandoned its Wi-Fi AQUOS TV in 2005. Neither is a Blutooth TV, which Samsung introduced in Korea last year (UPDATE: According to Samsung, this TV never made it to the U.S. and there are no plans for its arrival. Boo!). Samsung also has a DLP TV with Bluetooth.
(And for those wondering, most cable TV services that also offer home-phone service can route the caller ID to the TV so you don’t even have to pick up your phone to see who’s calling.)
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