LG Electronics Inc, South Korea's second-largest electronics maker, said it developed technology that may encourage US consumers to watch digital television programs on mobile phones, laptops and car navigation systems.
The Mobile Pedestrian Handheld technology will be demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas starting today, Kim Gyeong-whan, a spokesman at Seoul-based LG, said yesterday by telephone.
Portable devices equipped with MPH chips can display live TV broadcasts in cars traveling as fast as 90kph, LG said.
The technology is cheaper to adopt than rival systems because it lets stations use existing airwaves, LG said. The company estimates the North American mobile TV market will expand 33 percent to US$3.2 billion next year after growing 50 percent this year as federal law requires US broadcasters to convert to digital transmissions by February next year.
LG, which invested about 7 billion won (US$7.5 million) since 2006 to develop the technology, said MPH could spur sales of mobile phones, car navigation systems, notebook computers and receiver chips if MPH is chosen as a standard for mobile TV in the US.
The South Korean company invited about 100 officials from broadcasters and mobile phone operators to attend the demonstration at CES, LG said in an e-mailed statement last week.
LG demonstrated MPH to US broadcasters in April and has worked with Harris Corp, the biggest US maker of TV transmitters, to refine the technology, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The technology, which LG plans to begin selling next year, resolves technological obstacles that hindered the US digital standard from being adopted worldwide, the Journal said.
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