Samsung innovations: Cellphones with embedded projectors, solar-powered batteries: No word on price for mobile devices

Ahead of next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced two new innovations the company hopes will set it apart from the inevitable trade-show noise. Specifically, the company unveiled its “Blue Earth” touchscreen phone, which features a rechargeable solar panel, and, separately, the company announced a teaming with Texas Instruments Inc. for the I7410/W7900 phone, which features TI’s DLP Pico embedded projector.
“This is an exciting time for the mobile-phone industry as we transform the limitations of the mobile phone,” said Wonsik Lee, VP of the R&D Planning Team at Samsung, in a statement about the company’s new projector phone.
First up is Samsung’s new embedded projector phone, which can project pictures in excess of 50 inches. The phone also supports Powerpoint slides, e-mail attachments, a 5-megapixel camera and a high-resolution color OLED touchscreen.
The Samsung projector phone will be available in February in Korea (model name: W7900) and “soon” will be available in the European market (model name: I7410). The company did not disclose pricing, and was not immediately available for comment.
Separately, Samsung said its Blue Earth phone is part of its environmental sustainability initiative, dubbed “The Blue Dream: Eco-living with Samsung mobile.”
The chargeable solar panel is located on the back side of the phone, which has been designed to look like a rounded shiny pebble, Samsung said in a release. Blue Earth is also made from recycled plastic in water bottles and is free from harmful substances such as brominated flame retardants, beryllium and phthalate.
The user interface will feature and “eco-mode” option that allows the user to operate screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth.
The company did not release pricing details or where the phone would sell, nor was it immediately available for comment.
The phones from Samsung are surely a prelude to a deluge of handset announcements at next week’s Mobile World Congress trade show.