THX expanding to mobile audio

THX senior VP Rick Dean in an interview Monday said his company was pursuing its certification process for smartphones and tablets. The audio team was "actively going down that path" of hoping to improve mobile audio, in part because mobile devices could now output to a TV. Size limited what THX could do, but Dean told Pocket-lint that compression or DSP tuning could improve what came out of the system.

The company would like to supply apps as well, although Dean couldn't say how likely it would be.

Customers and a timeframe for the first THX-cerfified phone weren't available. Dean explained that could work with a company who makes "phones like these," pointing to an iPhone 4, but was likely referring to media-friendly smartphones rather than Apple by name.

Audio is becoming a focus among smartphone makers as a whole. HTC is preparing Beats-equipped smartphones like the Vigor that, while not expected to overcome their speakers' limitiations, should sound better than smartphones have in the past.

By Electronista Staff