Samsung staying neutral in mobile TV wars

In the battle over mobile TV standards, Korean manufacturer Samsung has decided not to take sides and is fact building multimedia handsets based on both Qualcomm's and European vendors' standardized technology as well as the digital multimedia broadcasting technology developed in Korea.

While European vendors and carriers are promoting digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) based on digital TV standards, Qualcomm has developed a competing technology called forward link only (FLO) it is trying to push through the standards bodies through a consortium called the FLO Forum. While many vendors are swearing allegiance to one technology or the other, Samsung officials said the vendor would remain neutral, supporting any global standard that emerges.

"I don't think there is a single air interface that will win out," said Tom Jasny, Samsung vice president of wireless and broadband systems for North America. "This is not VHS versus Beta. There will be room for both technologies."

Samsung was an early entrant into the multicast multimedia field, creating handsets for Korea's DMB networks, while both DVB-H and FLO have been in development. As both technologies prepare for commercial launch in the U.S. this year (DVB-H through Crown Castle and FLO through its subsidiary MediaFLO USA), Samsung is preparing CDMA and GSM handsets for both networks. At CES last week, Samsung demonstrated pre-commercial FLO and DVB-H handsets.

Many of the Asian CDMA technology companies have backed FLO through the FLO Forum, while the GSM handset giants like Nokia and Texas Instruments have rallied behind the DVB-H standard. Samsung, however, has significant interests in both CDMA and GSM, leading it to be technology agnostic, Jasny said.