(http://gigaom.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/android-market.jpg?w=200&h=200)
A few years ago, who could have thought that phones would one day be running chips with a PC-quality oomph. Today, one such platform was announced, when STEricsson, a joint venture of Ericsson and ST Microelectronics released, U8500. It is powered by dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with each processor core running at 1.2 GHz. A demo, currently being showed off at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is utilizing Google’s Android OS to show off its various capabilities. The new platform, gives us a chance to peek into what awaits the Android ecosystem and what kind of Android phones we should expect over next few months.
First of all, we should assume that the raw processing power is only going to enhance Android’s performance. The 45 nm manufacturing process ensures that the chip is small enough to help build more powerful, yet slimmer touchscreen devices. The U8500 supports full 1080p HD camcorder, 20 Megapixel still camera, advanced 3D graphics and support multi-channel home-theater audio quality. The platform also has built-in support for HDMI-out. More importantly it is the low power consumption capabilities. For instance, the new platform has 120 hours of audio playback or 12 hours of full HD video playback on one battery charge, when equipped with a standard 1,000mAH battery.