The standard for mobile phones is changing, driven by the demand that handsets not only deliver a communication experience, but also provide an optimal entertainment experience, according to a free whitepaper by MultiMedia Intelligence.

The requirements for competitive multimedia handsets, also referred to as feature rich multimedia handsets, not only involve improving the features themselves, but also secondary hardware improvements to enable optimal performance.

“Multimedia is the term of the day as wireless services expands beyond voice to include a variety of communication, data, and entertainment services,” according to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer for MultiMedia Intelligence. “Companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are racing to meet the consumer and operator demands for increasingly feature-rich multimedia handsets, while controlling handset cost and power consumption. In turn, semiconductor manufacturers like Broadcom, Texas Instruments, ST Microelectronics and Qualcomm are competing to enable the increasing demands of handset manufacturers.”