One of the worst things about competition on the consumer electronics market in general (and that of mobile phones in particular) is the fact that some manufacturers tend to incorporate proprietary connectivity and/or charging solutions into their devices, thus forcing consumers to choose only accessories approved by them (which probably also add some more revenue).

Nevertheless, it seems that at least a couple of big honchos in this field have decided to team up in order to come up with an interface for mobile phones that might prove to be extremely useful in the future. So, Nokia, Samsung, Silicon Image, Sony and Toshiba have jointly announced the formation of a Mobile High-Definition Interface Working Group that intends to create an industry standard for an audio/video interface to connect mobile phones or portable consumer electronics (CE) devices directly to high-definition televisions (HDTVs) and displays.

According to the joint statement made by all the companies mentioned above, this new mobile connectivity standard, based on Silicon Image's Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) technology, will be defined, promoted and marketed by the Working Group as an industry standard open to anyone desiring to be an adopter and enable the development of mobile products that adhere to this new standard across a broad connectivity ecosystem.

The Working Group's vision for the next generation of mobile connectivity is to provide an easy and cost-effective implementation for manufacturers while offering consumers a simple and reliable mobile connectivity experience. A single-cable with a low pin count interface will be able to support up to 1080p high-definition (HD) digital video and HD audio in addition to delivering power to a portable device.

The Working Group is expected to organize a Consortium of founding members who will develop a mobile connectivity technology standard specification that governs transmission and reception of high-definition content between portable devices and display devices, to support connectivity in accordance with the new specification.

And given the magnitude of the companies involved in this initiative (after all, we can see there three of the top 5 mobile phone manufacturers on the market), it's very likely that this interface will become a reality in the near future.


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .