Texas Instruments are preparing to claw back market share from rival Qualcomm with a range of new high-end chipsets for mobile devices, one of which will enable “pico” projectors and the other that will encode and decode high-definition video on the handset itself.  Pico projectors, which TI demonstrated last year, can be used to project large screens onto walls and desks, and overcome the issue of increased mobile content presented on small cellphone displays; Greg Delagi, head of TI’s mobile chip business, expects pico projector-equipped devices to be on sale in a year’s time.

TI’s other chipset, the OMAP3440, will allow manufacturers to incorporate high-definition recording and playback in cellphones and other mobile devices.  Unlike earlier chips, which supported only HD playback, the 3440 could allow handsets to act as mobile PVRs, connected to HD TVs for recording and playback. 

The OMAP3440 will be available for manufacturer testing in the second half of 2008, with commercial products that use the technology expected on the market in twelve months time.