SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. is powering Samsung handsets with GPS-enabled location services for GSM mobile phone subscribers in China.

As mobile phone users across China travel in their localities or across country, the low-power SiRFstarIII multimode assisted-GPS (A-GPS) architecture at the heart of the recently released Samsung SGH-i728 mobile phone is designed to guide people to their destinations; support timely, location-enhanced traffic, weather, event updates and other useful information; and help locate local restaurants, entertainment and hotels.

"China is the world's largest mobile phone market, and Samsung has created an excellent mobile phone platform for supporting location-based services in this dynamic market," said Kanwar Chadha, VP of marketing and founder of SiRF. "With the recently concluded Olympics showcasing China to a global audience, we believe that service providers have a strong opportunity to demonstrate the real power of location through a variety of exciting applications for both domestic and international users."

According to ABI Research, the worldwide market for GPS-enabled handsets is expected to grow from approximately 240 million units shipped in 2008 to over 550 million handset shipments in 2012.

"Our SGH-i728 mobile phone extends our relationship with SiRF into the vast China market, and we hope that Chinese consumers can enjoy the benefits of various location-based services," said Sophia Kim, a spokesperson at Samsung. "Samsung expects the market for location-based services to boom in the near future, and is committed to supporting exciting new location-based service applications with a full line of location-aware handsets."

The SiRF GSC3LTf product, used in the Samsung SGH-i728 mobile phone, puts the SiRFstarIII architecture on a small, wireless-friendly chip, and integrates a number of power management and control functions to reduce power consumption, complexity and BOM costs. The GSC3LTf also supports the SiRFLoc Client software, SiRF's patented multimode A-GPS solution powering mobile phones optimized for location-enabled-services. SiRFLoc improves GPS location capability in wireless system environments by utilizing various modes of wireless infrastructure assistance to provide a quick location fix and improve signal reception in obstructed environments.

Source:eetasia