Infraware of Korea opens the way for a US$30 BOM cost smart phone market
2012-11-29 JH Bae
Termed as Polaris Smart Suite, PSS, the OS platform is the Android-based stripped-down OS platform that can work together even with very basic hardware layouts.
As the OS gets stripped down, so does the main hardware layout of CPU, memory blocks, and display, to the limit.
For example, its SPS-run reference smartphone is powered by MediaTek’s legacy MT6257 520MHz baseband processor, coming complete with nothing more than 512MB NAND flash memory chip and 256MB SDRAM.
It also sports a 3.5-inch display of a low-resolution of 480 x 320p.
Often called as the hardware abstraction layer, the kernel layer of the OS platform usually specifies all the basic hardware specifications of CPU, memory system, and the display resolution.
PSS's kernel layer gets so simplified with no frill that it can afford to work on low-end hardware designs, greatly helping to lower BOM, or bill of material costs.
Notwithstanding, its user section and API, or applications programming interface layers are powerful enough to support Internet full browsing, video playbacks, built-in cameras, Web search, SNS, email services, and 3D games rendering.
For example, its reference phone shows that users play Angry Bird and Ninja Fruit on its screen. Users also can access and activate SNS sites like Facebook and Twitter via Wi-Fi or 3G network.
Infraware zeros in on ultra-low cost smart phone markets in China, India and other economies.
As is the case, the company is now building its PSS ecosystem together with its partners in these low-cost markets. For example, users in China can access and download more than 1,000 Android apps from China's Crossmo App store (http://crossmo.com)
The first PSS smartphones will be due out in December in China, followed by India, Russia and other markets in South East Asia and Latin America.
According to market research firm NPD DisplaySearch, shipments of the low-cost smartphones, which are defined as having a selling price of less than US$150, are forecast to double annually from 4.5 million in 2012 to 311 million in 2016. The share of ow-costs smartphones as a percentage of the total will jump from 2% in 2012 to 29% in 2016, too.
Infraware Co., Ltd is a Seoul, Korea-based mobile software solution providers. The software design house has supplied a series of mobile web browser suites for phone makers like Samsung and LG.
(Video & Photo Credit: Infraware Co., Ltd.)