This site about options is new to me but very interesting.

http://www.iqauto.com/cgi-bin/pain.pl

my3sons87 - I am seriously thinking about attending the ASM this year. It is already written on my calendar. Last year I had a scheduling conflict but this year may be my first year to attend.

Loop -

You said, "There are over 100 companies claiming essential IPR in W-CDMA."

What would think about IDCC offering to acquire some of these small patent portfolios? Maybe, buying some for cash and maybe some for IDCC stock. Couldn't IDCC bundle these and offer separate licensing agreements per bundle (depending of general function)?

This could simplify the licensing process, streamline the rollout of 3G, and provide additional visibility, recognition and cash flow for IDCC.


OT: Loop, I really appreciate your posts over the years. Your insight is thought provoking and your humor is one of a kind! Thanks!

Why should ERICY be up 30% in the past five days?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=c&c=ericy&k=c1&t=5d&s=idcc&a=v&p=s&l=on&...

And, What about Ericy's big reserve for past infringement? Will they now show a profit for last year?

OT: Interesting wisdom for today

"The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress." - Joseph Joubert

I think we will be halted after a few minutes of trading! Thanks to every here for the swell ride!

Mschere and Jaykayjones

Regarding Bosch and Motorola

Thank you both for your input about my concerns. It is my impression that there is still meat on that bone and it is being stewed at this time. I am hopeful that dinner will soon be served and that it will be a hearty meal.

CLS - I had a discussion recently about Motorola buying Bosch. There should be some obligation from MOT to IDCC as a result of that transaction. Is it that somehow tied to a resolution of ERICY? My previous post was meant to stimulate some thoughts along these lines. The individual (he does not post to any IDCC forums) who was talking with me about this thinks there is an obligation involved here and maybe even a Memorandum of Understanding between the two companies. The Bosch contract should still have value to IDCC. I have no additional links to support these thoughts. What happens to other contracts when a company sells off a division? It doesn't void any existing contracts (does it?).

Question - Was Bosch ever involved in any type of strategic alliance with IDCC before Motorola bought Bosch? TIA

New Motorola UMTS phone may use Symbian OS

March 13, 2003 1:39 PM EST

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--A filing on the Federal Communications Commission's Web site seems to have inadvertently revealed details and pictures of an unannounced Motorola Inc. mobile phone that features an array of advanced features, including picture and video capabilities.

The Motorola A920 seems to use the Symbian operating system and be designed for the third-generation UMTS Hutchison networks in Europe. However, the phone is registered with the U.S.-based FCC and seems to support tri-band GSM, which means it could be used in the United States.

A Motorola spokesman declined to comment on the device.

Motorola has already announced devices for 3G networks, as well as devices for 3G carrier Hutchison. That the device could use the Symbian operating system is interesting because some have guessed Motorola is moving away from Symbian.

Motorola isn't the only mobile phone maker that seems to have inadvertently revealed information about upcoming devices. Nokia Corp. recently put out a press release detailing its CDMA plans that included information about upcoming CDMA phones, which the company has not yet formerly announced. A Nokia spokeswoman confirmed the company plans to officially release additional CDMA phones next week. Dow Jones reported the company plans to release five new CDMA phones, including several advanced models.

Nokia has in the past stated its intent to improve its CDMA product lineup.

Motorola Sees Slow Sales of 3G Handsets in 2003


HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - U.S.-based Motorola said on Tuesday it expected to sell just a few hundred thousand of its handsets for fast third generation (3G) mobile phone networks this year. The modest forecast comes despite industry hopes that more than 20 operators throughout Europe will start selling third generation services to consumers this year, said Bob Schukai, Motorola's head of third generation products in Europe.



"We're not going to sell half a million of our 3G handsets this year, and probably not a quarter of a million phones. There are just not enough consumers and operators," he told Reuters in an interview at the fringes of CeBIT, the world's largest electronics trade show, in Hanover, Germany.


Ulrich Schumacher, head of German chip maker Infineon, said at CeBIT on Tuesday that he was pessimistic about the immediate impact of the new technology and did not expect significant 3G handset sales this year. Infineon makes chips for 3G phones.


Also on Tuesday, the German unit of Britain's mobile operator Vodafone said at CeBIT that it would delay the launch of 3G services, originally planned for the spring, until the second half of 2003.


Meanwhile Finnish giant Nokia (news - web sites), which sells more than twice as many phones as second placed Motorola, said at CeBIT it expected to outsell its rivals with its 3G phone 6650, due out in the first half of this year. Motorola's Schukai said that Nokia was late compared with Motorola, which has had its own 3G phone on offer to consumers since late last year via Europe's first 3G operator "3" and was already planning to launch a smaller and lighter successor in the fourth quarter.


Tens of thousands of consumers have registered to buy phones and services from "3" and consumers will receive Motorola and NEC handsets next month.


In addition, Germany's Siemens, the world's fourth-largest handset maker, would sell Motorola's phones under its own brand name, he said, adding that Motorola's model had a bigger screen than Nokia's and showed video of better quality.


Video is considered the key application to convince consumers to switch to the faster 3G mobile networks.

Cell phones targeted as budgets cut

Local governments mull whether employees really need them

ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 10 — Government employees around the country are being told to share cell phones, get better calling plans or give up their phones altogether as officials try to balance their deficit-ridden budgets. State audits have found frequent abuse and mismanagement of cell phones, making them an obvious item to cut.

Many public agencies fail to take advantage of falling monthly rates, keep track of personal calls or review who really needs the devices, audits show.

“WHEN THE BUDGETS get really tight, that’s when a lot of the silly stuff goes away,” Missouri Auditor Claire McCaskill said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell hopes to shave more than $1 million from the state’s annual bill for more than 5,000 cell phones. For starters, he will try to consolidate the myriad contracts entered into by state agencies to get a better deal.
“If we accept the premise that we need such a heavy reliance on these cell phones, why in the world are we not making these cell phone companies compete for a bulk deal?” asked spokesman Ken Snyder.
Similarly, Maryland plans to put its cell phone contracts up for re-bid later this year.
In Rhode Island, where state agencies spent nearly $270,000 on cell phones last year, Gov. Donald Carcieri recalled all executive branch cell phones while he reviews their use as part of an overall cost-cutting plan.
The move follows similar action in the Rhode Island Statehouse, where House legislative aides are sharing five phones, down from the 22 they used to carry.
The mayors of cash-strapped Atlanta and Kansas City, Mo., have also ordered broad recalls of city cell phones, telling workers to justify their need for them.
Many public agencies fail to take advantage of falling monthly rates, keep track of personal calls or review who really needs the devices, audits show.

The St. Louis Election Board, for example, failed to collect 90 of 387 phones distributed to poll workers for an August election, leading to $35,000 worth of unauthorized calls. The board also kept service on between elections for the past two years, accumulating $350,000 in bills.
“A grand jury determined that a crime was committed, but records were so bad that they couldn’t tell who committed it,” McCaskill said.
A former labor department official in Pennsylvania — fired in November — made more than 1,000 personal calls on his state cell phone to a friend in Montana, the auditor’s office found. One call lasted nearly 7 hours.
Excess chatter is not the case everywhere.

In Maryland, a recent audit found about a third of the state’s 6,700 cell phones went to people who used them less than three hours a year, at an annual cost of $122,000.
A Maryland audit showed the state could save at least $500,000 a year by keeping better track of things like contract terms, excess usage and reimbursement for personal calls.
“People couldn’t even tell us how many phones (their agencies) had, much less whether they’re getting paid for personal phone calls,” said legislative auditor Bruce Myers, who estimated the state spent $5.3 million on cell phones last year.
The audit showed, for example, that 74 high-volume users paid $164,000 for calls that would have cost about $34,000 under plans with higher calling limits.
Wireless work calls will not completely come to a halt. Cell phones are essential for emergency workers and are seen as a cost-effective tool for others.
“You can’t do these management and productivity analyses with a cleaver. You need a scalpel,” Pennsylvania’s Snyder said.

Nokia bolstered by report on sales
But key question remains: How big is threat to ASPs?

By Emily Church, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:37 AM ET March 10, 2003


LONDON (CBS.MW) - Hopes for sales growth in the first quarter at Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, were bolstered after a market researcher's report said industry handset sales in the fourth quarter rose 14 percent against the same period in 2001.


Gartner Dataquest, in its quarterly estimate on global sales, said worldwide unit handset sales rose to 122.6 million in the fourth quarter and that unit sales rose 6 percent to 423.4 million in 2002.

"There were more upgrades than we were anticipating," said Ben Wood, senior analyst for Gartner in Europe. "It started in the second half of the fourth quarter. There could be a sweet spot for replacements in the next 12-18 months in Europe," he said.

Nokia dominates the European market. Overall, the Finnish company raised its global market share to 35.8 percent share from 35 percent in 2001, Gartner said. U.S. rival Motorola (MOT: news, chart, profile) is second with a 15.3 percent share, up from 14.8 percent in 2001.

Nokia shares (SE:NOKI: news, chart, profile) were higher Monday in European trade on the back of the report, but the gains didn't hold into the U.S. morning trade. Nokia ADRs (NOK: news, chart, profile) were last down 20 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $12.75.

Expectations for sales growth for first quarter at Nokia have been fading due to the weakening dollar and recent reports showing declining consumer confidence.

Nokia has said it expected first quarter handset sales to grow in a range of 0-9 percent in the first quarter. Sales were flat in the fourth quarter. Analysts say the risk on Tuesday is for to guidance tightened to the lower range of the sales growth outlook.

The Gartner report doesn't appear to have advanced the burning issue ahead of Nokia's mid-quarter update on Tuesday: How great is the risk of decline in average selling prices for Nokia profits, and by extension, that of the industry.

The "lower-priced mix" in handset models drove fourth quarter sales, the Garter data shows. Yet sales of higher-priced phone with color screens improved, and the screens are a big factor in the replacement sales, Wood said.

"Prices have been pushed down, but there is an opportunity to push people toward more expensive phones," he said. Hopes that newer features such as camera-capable phones and the color screens will drive upgrades found some support in the Gartner figures.

Phones at the very low end are dropping to the $50-60 level. Some analysts say concern over the trend on sales prices have been contributing to the pressure on Nokia's stock.

Nokia shares have underperformed some of its peers year-to-date, and are down 9 percent vs. a 4 percent decline for rival Motorola and an 11 percent and 47 percent gain for hard-hit 2002 infrastructure stocks Ericsson (ERICY: news, chart, profile) and Alcatel (ALA: news, chart, profile).

SonyEricsson's market share fell to 5.5 percent from 6.7 percent in 2001. Samsung saw its share increase to a no. 3 spot with 9.8 percent from 7.1 percent, the Gartner data shows. Siemens (SI: news, chart, profile) was fourth at 8.2 percent in 2002 from 7.4 percent in 2001.

"We do not expect Nokia's midquarter update to be positive on ASPs but to include a downward revision to top-line guidance," J.P. Morgan's Rohit Goel told clients on Friday as he upgraded his sector relative rating on the shares to "overweight" from "neutral." See full story.

Emily Church is London bureau chief of CBS.MarketWatch.com.

Cell-Phone Makers' Suit Suffers Setback
A U.S. appeals court says racketeering allegations by Motorola and Nokia are premature.

From Reuters


CHICAGO -- A U.S. appeals court dismissed as premature racketeering allegations brought by the world's two largest makers of wireless telephones against the family that owns Turkey's No. 2 wireless operator.

The Uzan family, one of Turkey's wealthiest families and owners of wireless operator Telsim, still faces fraud charges filed under Illinois state law by Motorola Inc. and Finland's Nokia. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York directed U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff to decide whether those claims fall under his jurisdiction.

The decision raises the question as to whether Rakoff will still render a judgment that had been expected soon or dismiss the charges, resulting in them being refiled in state court.

Motorola officials said they do not expect Rakoff to dismiss the state charges and the Chicago area-based company remains committed to recovering its money.

"This doesn't alter the facts of this case. This doesn't alter the fraud in this case. This doesn't alter the result in this case. All it does for now, perhaps, is alter the relief for Motorola and Nokia on the [racketeering] count without regard to what's going to happen on the merits," a Motorola spokesman said.

In January 2002, Motorola and Nokia sued several Uzan family members, alleging they borrowed almost $3 billion from the companies with no intention of repaying the loans.

The loans dated back to 1998, when the industry routinely loaned money to customers for equipment purchases in a practice known as vendor financing.

The district court case was heard on Feb. 19 in New York but was not attended by the Uzans or their attorneys, who have argued the court does not have jurisdiction in this case.

The three-judge appeals court panel said in a unanimous decision late Friday that Rakoff had incorrectly decided Motorola and Nokia could at the present time file racketeering charges against the Uzans.

The charges could be reinstated at a later date, but not until the cell-phone makers have determined the value of the collateral they were to receive and the exact amount of damage suffered, the appeals court said.

Do I see 18,800 shares in pre-market?

Wireless Companies Turn to Walkie-Talkie Technology
22 minutes ago Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Yukari Iwatani

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In a throwback to a time before cell phones were invented, U.S. wireless telephone companies are hoping a World War II-vintage communications concept will help revive their stagnating businesses.



They've set their sights on a walkie-talkie-like feature that allows cell phone users to connect with friends, family and colleagues instantly with the push of a button instead of dialing a number and waiting for the call to go through.


"It's good news for the industry because it's an important feature," said independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan. "It's a feature that every user will fall in love with."


The wireless phone industry has suffered a slowdown in customer growth as the economy stumbles. Meanwhile, about half of the U.S. population now owns cell phones, making it harder to add new customers.


For a decade, the fifth-largest U.S. wireless operator, Nextel Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:NXTL - news), has held a virtual monopoly in offering "push-to-talk" to a niche market of construction crews, technicians and government agencies. And despite the market slump, Nextel stands out in the wireless industry with its leading revenue-per-user and customer retention rates.


While larger rivals have been threatening to crash the party with similar features for some time, concrete plans for the new service, including the basic technical standards needed behind the scenes, are now taking shape.


AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (NYSE:AWE - news), the third-largest carrier, said last week it expects to test a push-to-talk service in Seattle in the fourth quarter of 2003, and in other regions in 2004.


An agreement announced last month by equipment makers Ericsson (news - web sites) (ERICb.ST), Nokia (news - web sites) (NOK1V.HE) and Siemens AG (news - web sites) (SIEGn.DE) to create a standard for push-to-talk is also sure to drive competition. Cingular Wireless (NYSE:BLS - news) (NYSE:SBC - news), the second-largest U.S. mobile phone company, is supporting the joint effort although it has no specific plans at the moment to launch such a service.


Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ - news) (VOD.L) and Sprint PCS Group (NYSE:PCS - news), the nation's No. 1 and No. 4 wireless companies, have repeatedly said they intend to launch walkie-talkie-like features this year.


KEY TO HIGHER REVENUE


Rivals' efforts could prove to be a huge threat to Nextel, said Todd Bernier, wireless analyst with Morningstar. "If they can start doing the things that Nextel does, the competitive advantage that Nextel once had is gone."


Nextel, for example, posted free cash flow, or cash flow before financing activities, in 2002, a year ahead of schedule.


"Nextel's been able to collect at least $20 a month more (per customer) in service revenue (because) they've got this push-to-talk service," said Adam Guy, director of research and consulting for InfoTek Research Group.


A manager at a software manufacturer, for example, can discuss a problem instantly with all of his engineers in a "talk group" via a Nextel phone and then notify his field technicians of the problem within seconds.


While Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS and AT&T Wireless have all kept mum about their specific plans, analysts expect the companies to undercut Nextel's high-end prices and target a broader customer base, including families.


With greater coverage and bigger marketing muscle, the three companies will likely chip away at Nextel's customer base and might even force the Reston, Virginia-based company to cut its own prices, analysts said.


Nextel is also at a disadvantage because its cell phone service is based on a unique network that is available only in metropolitan areas, analysts said. The larger wireless companies, which use more standard technology, can offer users roaming options even in rural areas.





"What's left is a smaller competitor that doesn't have an edge anymore. A smaller competitor with a less robust telephone portion. When the edge goes away, I think you'll see their market share erode," Kagan said.

"ONLY DIRECT CONNECT WILL DO"

Nextel denies its emerging push-to-talk rivals pose a real threat to the company.

"While we are always listening to what others might say about it, we're confident that for our business customers, only Direct Connect will do," said Nextel spokeswoman Audrey Schaefer. Direct Connect is Nextel's name for push-to-talk.

"We understand exactly what our customers need and instant is critical," said Schaefer, alluding to industry talk that its competitors are still working through technology snags in the time it takes to connect.

Nextel, for its part, has taken measures to stay competitive. It plans to introduce a new technology that will double its voice capacity and enhance voice quality, in addition to rolling out nationwide Direct Connect later this year.

Currently, Direct Connect can connect users only within a designated "home market," although that can be shifted temporarily to certain cities if a customer is traveling.

Nextel will likely do everything it can to keep its valuable customers, but analysts said the company is certain to face tough challenges ahead especially if economic pressures continue and its business customers are forced to cut costs.

"If, say AT&T Wireless, which pretty much blankets the country, ... said you can use push-to-talk as regular minutes in any city at any time without hitches, and then they turn it into a marketing game, you can't tell me that won't impact Nextel even for their business users," Morningstar's Bernier said

-Mobile to cut wireless-data prices


By Ben Charny
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 5, 2003, 12:13 PM PT


T-Mobile is cutting wireless-data subscription prices in half to lure more people onto its new high-speed cell phone networks, an executive with the German wireless provider said on Wednesday.
Nikesh Arora, T-Mobile chief marketing officer, said the new subscriptions rates will hit next month in Europe and eventually be introduced in most of T-Mobile's markets.

Under the new T-Mobile pricing plans, a megabyte of data costs $10, which is about half as much as European carriers now charge. On a cell phone, a megabyte of data is good for sending about 300 messages or downloading about 1,000 wireless Web pages. On a PC, that amounts to downloading about five graphically rich Web pages.



Other price cuts and additional details about the new plans will be announced by T-Mobile in the next week or so, Arora said.

T-Mobile is the latest, among carriers that have sunk billions into building new cell phone networks, to cut the prices for services like e-mails or viewing Web pages on phones. Sprint PCS is now offering its PCS Vision phone owners unlimited wireless Web access for $10 a month. Verizon Wireless is selling unlimited text messaging, a change from its per-message fee model.

T-Mobile and other carriers hoped selling wireless data, which also includes downloadable games and picture messages, would earn them new revenue and help offset the cost of building new networks. Aside from doubling the capacity for voice calls, the new networks ferry data up to four times faster than the ones being replaced.

But one thing--high prices--has kept many new customers away, said analyst Alan Reiter of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing. He said the impact is most dramatic in the United States, where only 10 million of the nation's 140 million dialers use any kind of wireless-data service.

"Carriers have been pricing data based on spreadsheets, not on what consumers are willing to pay," Reiter said.

Sony Ericsson Taps New Division President
Monday March 3, 10:48 am ET
Sony Ericsson Names New Division Head, to Release New Phone


STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- LM Ericsson said Monday that Sandeep Chennakeshu will be the new president of its Mobile Platforms division, which licenses cell phone technology to phonemakers.
Chennakeshu, who has been chief technology officer at phonemaker Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, will replace Tord Wingren, who will take a technology strategy position under Jan Uddenfeldt, Ericsson's chief technology officer.


The appointment of Chennakeshu, which was announced internally on Monday, is effective April 7.

Ericsson spokesman Peter Olofsson said the unit's business strategy remains unchanged.

Ericsson formed the Mobile Platforms division in the fall of 2001 to license technology that its phone unit had developed for the inside of mobile phones. At the time, Ericsson was getting ready to spin out the rest of its cell phone operations into a joint venture with Sony Corp.

Sony Ericsson licenses technology from the Mobile Platforms division. The unit's other licensees include LG Electronics, Microcell, TCL Mobile, Benefon and GVC.

Also Monday, a Swedish Web site reported, without citing sources, that Sony Ericsson will introduce a new color-screen cellular phone aimed at consumers on Tuesday.

The Stockholm-based phone maker, a joint venture between AB Ericsson and Sony, plans to start selling the model -- dubbed the T310 -- during the second quarter of 2003.

Mobil reported on its Web site that Sony Ericsson will also introduce a new model with a built-in camera, the T610.

Sony Ericsson declined comment.

Sony Ericsson is the fifth larger maker of mobile phones in the world, behind Finland's Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics and Siemens AG.

Sony Ericsson: http://www.sonyericsson.com

Intel Focuses on Wireless Future With New Chip
The 'Centrino' will debut next week in the company's effort to get users to log on to the Net from everywhere.

By Terril Yue Jones, Times Staff Writer


Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 chip maker, is betting that 2003 will become the year of wireless computing.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is set to unveil its new wireless chip package, dubbed "Centrino," next week. The initiative reflects that some of its biggest customers -- Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Computer Corp., IBM Corp., Gateway Inc., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp., among them -- are planning to unleash a barrage of wireless products in the coming months.

Major hardware retailers and travel service providers also are expected to announce a range of products and services that greatly expand the ability to connect wirelessly while sitting in, say, a coffeehouse, a hotel lobby or at an airport gate.

For Intel, Centrino's debut represents its biggest product launch since the 2000 introduction of its Pentium-4 chip, its fastest ever for personal computers. It also marks the first time that the company has given a name to a product other than an individual microprocessor.

"They've established a technology ... that really means that within a couple of years we'll see pretty much every notebook product shipping with wireless," said Martin Reynolds, an analyst with the technology research firm Gartner Dataquest. "That's probably the biggest goal they have -- to get wireless out there so people are using their computers in more ways, in more places, which they hope will make people buy more of them."

Centrino packs a Pentium-M processor designed for mobile use, accompanying electronics and wireless network capabilities into a single package with extended battery life. The total package enables thinner and lighter notebook and tablet computer designs, Intel said.

Products with Centrino platforms will carry a butterfly-like logo with the words, "Centrino inside," reminiscent of the "Intel inside" logo that adorns many desktop and laptop PCs.

To boost Centrino's profile, Intel is launching a global ad campaign today, starting with a series of 15-second television ads that will air in prime time in 11 countries. Next week, the company will follow up with newspaper inserts as well as outdoor and online ads.

The ads feature the line: "Intel will not only change how you work, but where you work." They show people browsing the Internet on their laptops from a diving board, an airport people mover, a golf course driving range and a sightseeing bus.

Intel won't say how much it is spending on the ad campaign except that it is more than the $300-million budget for launching the Pentium-4.

While Centrino will make wireless capability broadly available, it is likely to reduce the ability of computer makers to differentiate their products, Reynolds said.

That "is a good thing for the users because you know if you buy a notebook from one of the big manufacturers that it's functionally going to perform the same way," he said. "The downside is the notebook vendors will feel they're having their competitive edge blunted a little bit."

Experts: Copyright law hurts technology


By Robert Lemos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 1, 2003, 4:30 PM PT


BERKELEY, Calif.--Attempts to protect copyrighted material have strayed from their original purpose, say lawyers, technologists and academics, but few can agree on the solution.
Speaking Friday at a University of California at Berkeley conference on the law and policy of digital rights management, experts from all circles seem to agree that more is going wrong than right with the current approach to protecting digital content. Moreover, they argue that current laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)--which makes cracking copyright protections illegal, even when otherwise acceptable under other laws--are serving the extremes, not the mainstream populace.

"There has to be a way between the lunatics at the two extremes," said Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University and well-known opponent of the DMCA. "We need to build a layer of reasonable copyright law on top of this background of unreasonable extremism."




Such sentiments for loosening the control of copyright holders are finding far more fertile ground these days, in the wake of a number of lawsuits that illustrate the dangers of the DMCA. Far fewer people believe that the DMCA is an appropriate method to stave off digital pirates in the Internet age.

For the most part, Lessig and others seemed to have more problems with the law than with the technology behind digital rights management, which regulates what people can do with information. The Stanford professor has created an organization called the Creative Commons to offer alternatives to strict controls backed by laws such as the DMCA. He and other experts taking part in the two-day policy debate, even those sympathetic to the plight of copyright holders, could cite several cases where the DMCA has been used to exert control in a way never intended by the creators of the law.

On Friday, a Kentucky court granted a preliminary injunction to Lexmark International against a company that makes generic replacement cartridges for Lexmark printers. The court found that a chip in Lexmark cartridges that identify the refills as "official" could be protected under the DMCA, and thus, cannot be cloned.

Misapplication of the law
Even RealNetworks, a company that has a digital-rights management system for protecting video and audio delivered over the Internet, found fault with the ruling. "This is a travesty," said Alex Alben, vice president for the Seattle-based firm. "This is not what we intended when we created the DMCA."

The Lexmark case is the latest in what many legal experts and technologist argue is a misapplication of the law.

For example, security researchers have many more hurdles to overcome under the DMCA to publish research, said Joseph Liu, a law professor at Boston College Law School. Researchers can circumvent protections in order to study the security measures under an exemption of the DMCA, but the exemption favors those researchers with a good academic pedigree. Moreover, the researcher has to inform the copyright holder of the research and requires predisclosure of results, which could lead to censorship.

"There are so many flaws in the statute that you can censor yourself more than you really need to" because of the fear that you will be sued, Liu said.

Another speaker, Princeton University computer science professor Edward Felten, experienced such fears first hand when the Recording Industry Association of America told him that publishing results that showed the weaknesses in several secure digital music candidate technologies could violate the DMCA.

The courts disagreed that such a notice entailed a threat and threw out the case, but the tactic has become commonplace. Software companies have cited the DMCA to researchers who discover holes in their programs and have frequently sent out blanket notices to anyone who seems to host a pirated program. A site that offers up the open-source OpenOffice program received such a notice from Microsoft, according to reports on Friday, because an automated program searching for MS Office triggered on a simple keyword.

Increasingly, however, people receiving such notices are fighting back.

Ben Edelman, a Harvard law student and researcher, filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against a filter company to defend his research into the company's encrypted lists of blocked sites. And telecommunications and Internet service provider Verizon Communications has battled requests by the music industry to reveal the names of peer-to-peer sites that the RIAA alleges are offering pirated music online.

Concern for innovation
Such incidents have increased the resistance by consumers and rights advocates to the creation of a highly secure digital rights management system. In the current policy landscape--with such laws as the DMCA on the books--strict controls could lead to greater stifling of innovation and free speech, experts argued.

Even Microsoft--which is pushing for a security platform that could result in a extremely difficult-to-crack digital rights management system--wants to duck the policy issues.

"We have a clear focus that we don't want to restrict what people can use their computers for," said John Manferdelli, general manager for Microsoft's Windows Trusted Platform Technologies group. "We have found out in talking to customers that whatever the methods that you use, they cannot impose policy. It should be under user's control."

Yet, solving those issues will not be easy. The issues are not simple, and regulating every fair use of copyrighted content would lead to a complex law that wouldn't help, said Boston University's Liu.

"If we tried to spell out fair use in law, I think we would come up with something that would resemble the tax code in its complexity," he said.

Despite such sentiments, others stressed that the law needs to shift to put the rights of the citizens over those of the copyright monopolists.

David Farber, law professor for the University of Pennsylvania, said that digital rights management systems need to be in place to protect not the minority of big corporations but the masses of people.

"I am not talking about protecting the media companies from people using their content," he said. "I am concerned with protecting my information and finding out who made copies of it."

Until copyright policy tilts back to the populace, people will likely resist such systems, said John Erickson, a system program manager for Hewlett-Packard Labs, who spoke on one of four panels Friday. "We are taking the human being out of the equation...and putting a chastity belt on technology," he said.

He stressed that laws and technology, such as digital rights management, need to take constitutional issues into account.

"There is not social governance of what goes into a rights management language," he said. "If we are to have the regimes, we need to figure out how to have people in the loop."

Microsoft, Unicom to develop CDMA 1x business model


Feb. 28, 2003 12:47 PM EST

HONG KONG--Microsoft Corp. and China Unicom signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the business model and technology for cdma2000 1x services on the carrier's network.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Unicom President Wang Jianzhou reportedly signed the MoU.

"The presence of Microsoft enriches the CDMA industrial value chain, helps strengthen the R&D competence of Unicom Group in the CDMA data business, and provides strong technical support to the CDMA 1x data service, which will soon be launched through the Unicom Group network," said Unicom.

Cell phones that can pay for coffee

European carriers unite in plan to offer mobile payments

ASSOCIATED PRESS

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 27 -- The future of commerce on the go -- like paying for a cup of coffee with a few clicks on a cell phone, perhaps -- is getting closer now that four of Europe's biggest wireless carriers have formed a clearinghouse to boost mobile payments.

By incorporating wireless operators from across Europe, users who live in Spain can download a new ring tone and bill it to their account even if they are traveling in Sweden.

THE OPERATORS -- Spain's Telefonica Moviles SA, Germany's T-Mobile AG and Britain's Orange SA and Vodafone Group PLC -- unveiled plans Wednesday to offer secure payments between merchants, cell phone users and banks.
Dubbed the Mobile Payment Services Association, the service will be launched in Europe, but with an eye toward markets in the United States and Asia next year.
Tim Jones, the association's chief executive, said the service can push mobile commerce forward by creating a single brand for processing payments.
Ostensibly, the market for buying goods with a cell phone is limited. Users can go online, using a phone's built-in Web browser, and order flowers from a Web site, provided the details of a credit or debit card are stored in a virtual wallet.
The new clearinghouse, Jones said, offers more, taking card payments directly from mobile phone users and storing the financial information for future transactions. The service will cover small purchases, typically no more than $10.80.
"There is a growing experience already of customers, often younger people, buying logos and ring tones," he said.
Edward Holland, a spokesman for Madrid-based Telefonica Moviles, said the clearinghouse can speed along the goal of making mobile payments more convenient.
By incorporating wireless operators from across Europe, users who live in Spain can download a new ring tone and bill it to their account even if they are traveling in Sweden.
Eventually, though, the system will lead to mobile payments for more than cell phone downloads, said John Strand, CEO of Copenhagen, Denmark-based Strand Consult.
"We'll hear ‘Will this be a credit card transaction or just a mobile transaction?' " he said. "It could be done."
Last year, the amount of money spent globally for phone accouterments like ring tones and logos was an estimated $1.6 billion, according to Ovum, a research firm. By 2006, Ovum projects wireless commerce could reach $37 billion.

© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Siemens Mobile Acceleration opens U.S. headquarters


Feb. 27, 2003 12:55 PM EST

MUNICH, Germany--Siemens Mobile Acceleration, an early-stage wireless venture investor wholly owned by Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group, Munich, Germany, has opened an American headquarters in San Jose, Calif.

Gerald Brady, formerly director of 3i, a venture-capital firm specializing in software and communications companies, will serve as managing director of the U.S. office. Sven Weber, formerly with Apollis AG, the early-stage wireless investment unit of General Atlantic Partners and McKinsey & Co., is the new vice president of the American branch of Siemens Mobile Acceleration.

Companies funded by SMA will have the opportunity to participate with its parent company at industry events, to gain customer referrals and to obtain integration of their technology into Siemens' product and service packages. An investment director from the Siemens venture capital unit will be responsible for each funded start-up to offer strategic advice based on his or her prior experience in the company's particular field of endeavor.

"We want to tap the full potential of the most innovative companies in the U.S. wireless market," said Dietrich Ulmer, president and chief executive officer of Siemens Mobile Acceleration.

"We are confident that we can achieve a high level of interest and success in the United States by acting as a global gateway for emerging companies."

RTX Telecom signs its first significant TD-SCDMA contract.

RTX Telecom has signed its first contract for the development of terminal equipment for the Chinese TD-SCDMA standard. This is an important milestone for RTX Telecom and is in line with the growing interest that RTX Telecom has experienced being shown in TD-SCDMA technology.

RTX Telecom has worked on developing the basic components of TD-SCDMA technology since 2000 and has accumulated a substantial body of know-how related to TD-SCDMA.

TD-SCDMA is based on a combination of the best of the principles involved in the two leading cellular technologies, CDMA and GSM. This makes TD-SCDMA one of the best compromise solutions with respect to low-cost infrastructure and terminals, high voice capacity and high data speed, all of which are very important competitive factors in the Chinese market.

The work covered by the development contract is scheduled to be concluded in summer 2003. Based on this schedule, RTX Telecom expects the contract to generate earnings in the financial years 2001/02 and 2002/03. The contract and its impact do not affect RTX Telecom expectations as regards turnover and profits for the current 2001/02 financial year.

With regards
RTX Telecom A/S


Jørgen Elbæk
Managing Director

RTX Telecom is expanding in the TD-SCDMA technology, supplying the competitive advantage of our business model to leading handsets manufactures, who want the straightforward and safe route into TD-SCDMA, just from customer vision to final production ramp-up.

Even though China has not yet decided which 3G standard shall be dominating in China, RTX Telecom is convinced there will be room for TD-SCDMA as an expansion of the current GSM networks. TD-SCDMA is a technically superior standard for wireless internet access and streaming multi-media with its asymmetric up- and down-link bandwidth. As well the smooth evolution from GSM to TD-SCDMA will give the standard a boost securing a timely introduction to the mass market.

RTX Telecom has also proven that the Bill of Material for a GSM/TD-SCDMA handset will be substantially cheaper than the Bill Of Material for competing technologies like UMTS and CDMA2000.

RTX Telecom has worked on TD-SCDMA since 2000 developing the basic TD-SCDMA technology concentrating on the VHDL code specific for the TD-SCDMA base-band chipset, the Joint Detection DSP algorithms and the Layer 1 protocol software. This is the basis for a GSM/TD-SCDMA handset platform, which RTX Telecom will introduce to handset manufacturers. RTX Telecom will continuously upgrade and enhance the platform to make sure manufacturers stay competitive in the market.

The RTX Solution:
The RTX TD-SCDMA co-processor solution adds TD-SCDMA functionality to any GSM baseband chipset. This is a powerful argument: by using the generic interface to the TD-SCDMA coprocessor, it is possible to integrate the coprocessor to practically any existing GSM baseband chipset and terminal designs.

From a hardware point of view the coprocessor consist of:

TD-SCDMA Baseband codec and TD-SCDMA RF
TD-SCDMA Signal Processor
TD-SCDMA Baseband block

The Signal Processor is a fixed point DSP with 200 - 400 MIPS running the computationally complex joint detection algorithm used in TD-SCDMA. The Baseband block includes bus interfaces between the blocks, I/Q filtering, and a sequencer for scheduling the activities on the radio interface. Of course, the RF for TD-SCDMA is significantly different from GSM; the coprocessor design includes a TD-SCDMA specific RF.

Since the TD-SCDMA Protocol Stack (Layer 2-3) is very similar to the already existing GSM Protocol Stack, the GSM stack is adapted and used for both TD-SCDMA as well as for GSM.





For the Layer 1 part of the protocol stack the similarities are very few to GSM and therefore a complete TD-SCDMA Layer 1 has been developed. Furthermore the two separate Layer 1´s have to be simultaneously active in order to guarantee inter-system monitoring and handover.

A full layer 1 is implemented according to the evolution of the TD-SCDMA standard. Here the RTX layer 1 software has to be integrated into the TD-SCDMA/GSM protocol stack.

One of the major challenges when designing the layer 1 software is the handling of neighbor cell monitoring, especially when the neighbor cells are not synchronized to each other.

Another major challenge is the implementation of the Joint Detection algorithms in the TD-SCDMA terminal, especially concerning time optimization of the algorithms. RTX is working together with Aalborg University on Joint Detection algorithms and is studying the possibility for using other more efficient types of Joint Detection algorithms.

The design of the layer 1 software is made future proof, which means that it is prepared for implementation of power saving features, multi-resource/slot handling, packet data, monitoring of other network systems, etc. These are requirements, which are not necessarily important when making a prototype, but play a key role when aiming for a commercial product and future evolutions of the TD-SCDMA standard.

For more technical information, read also this White Paper from Siemens


To get more information on the RTX Cellular Solution, please contact our sales department.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RTX Telecom A/S - Stroemmen 6 DK-9400 - Noerresundby Denmark
Tel. +45 96322300 Fax. +45 96322310 e-mail: sales@rtx.dk WEB: http://www.rtx.dk VAT no. DK 17002147

OK - I will copy my comments to Rookie and email them to him. Over all, I am glad I paid the life time membership here on Ihub. I sure wish I could join you folks for lunch at Bonnie's sometime.

Speaking of ol'rookie, I sent him a private message on Ihub last week. He did not respond (not that my message needed a response, but he usually does when I email). Do you know if he uses the private message system here on Ihub?

All of the above. We had ice covered with sleet that combined into a sheet about a half inch thick. Just north of here, it was 8 to 10 inches of snow. Today we got another 2 -3 inches of snow with flood watches in many communities.

bulldzr - thanks for solving that puzzle that Jumlur provided. I will now be able to sleep tonight! LOL

By: par.q
16 Dec 2002, 05:47 PM EST Msg. 117212 of 119859
(This msg. is a reply to 117190 by jhaw.)
jhaw re ericd

...IMO, Nokia would be gambling if they signed a deal before the ERICY resolution, because there is always the possibility that ERICY might go to court and win. Nokia's risk is limited because they can always choose the Japanese rate. Of course, I think IDCC is offering Nokia a reduction over both the Japanese and expected ERICY rates to try and sign Nokia early

then again, maybe Nokia isn't waiting for Ericd at all? Nokia, i suppose, already knows, within a few mili-cents, what they expect to pay IDCC for 3g; this is based, in part, on current licensing agreements IDCC has already signed.

for 2g, Nokia may be waiting for a different event which is related principally to (a) IDCC's and Nokia's original development agreement and (b) platform proofs. IDCC and Nokia continue to work together "on many fronts" (not my words, but the words of a specialist at Nokia) on the development of 3g in general

i believe, in Nokia's thinking, the final trigger is more mundane such as the completion of the tdd testing platform. frankly, IDCC's work must be tested, re-tested, configured, re-configured, until it fits. Nokia's allignment with IDCC's interests in 1999 were based upon the successful completion of this platform...no platform, no 2g agreement.

IDCC has intimated that the platform they built for Nokia was "finished", yet the testing of said remained. that testing has been ongoing, now, for about eleven months. this is not unusual since tdd standard-based variables have been re-visted by Motorola and others.

since Nokia owns 50% of the GSM market in Europe, and 37% of the worldwide market for all formats, Nokia is in the unique position of being in the drivers seat. they don't need Ericd, nor Motorola, to help them come to a decision.

Nokia agreed with Qcom principally, in their own words, due to the "beneficial nature of the original CDMA agreement" struck with Qualcomm in 1993/94.

they agreed with IDCC's 2g patent position in 1999. this agreement can not be made void. the agreement subsequent to 2002 has a trigger...which many have speculated to be Ericd.

the "Ericd" situation, can be made into a trigger, i suppose; however, i sincerely doubt that Ericd was the primary trigger formed when the agreement was signed in 1999.

"Ericd" can represent motivation to license, but, given the complete uncertainty of the Ericd picture in 1999, it is doubtful that Nokia would have agreed, at all, to a framework to begin paying royalties after a specific date, i.e., 1-1-2002.

obviously, one can develop a framework which is so vague that it represents little beneficial interest to IDCC; other than bragging rights. but, we know the framework consisted of at least the four following parts: (a) a specific date, (b) optional licensing events, (c) platform readiness and (d) standards.

the (b) optional licensing - major manufacturers and (c) platform readiness are the two variables which remain.

Only "(b)" is optional...that is Nokia can optionally decide to pay the same license rate relative to the license paid by other major manufacturers

it seems strange to me that Nokia would vest its licensing interests in the hands of the court or other major manufacturers, regardless of the expected outcome...

as anyone can see from the Harris trial, the expected outcome of any patent trial is hardly predictable. IDCC states that they like their chances. Harry has stated (ASM), on ocassion, that he believes it would be best for Ericd to settle pre-trial.

Nokia, it seems, is not the type to be dragged into a licensing deal in which they have limited control...that is, basing their terms on the terms IDCC was able to extract from other "major manufacturers"...meaning basically, that IDCC was able to extract either a great or a poor court win out of Ericsson.

in other words, Nokia doesn't often gamble**. when they do, they try to jerry-rig the tables.

in the IDCC/Ericd case, Nokia cannot jerry-rig the tables with their 37% marketshare...if anything they've balanced the weight of any potential court decision in favor of IDCC...that is, they signed a licensing agreement with IDCC.

IDCC will, most likely, use the Nokia agreement, as evidence in court, that a major manufacturer agreed to pay IDCC for its technology. Harris did...why would not IDCC?

we know that Samsung, according to IDCC, argued to use the Nokia agreement as their basis for stopping further payment to IDCC for 2g goods. if a large company like Samsung is not afraid to resort to such child-like arguments, will Ericsson do likewise? Ericsson has equally proved child-like, in Harris, by claiming they shouldn't pay anything more than other manufacturers even though they were found to willfully infringe.

as long as the Nokia/IDCCC agreement remains ongoing Ericd cannot well use the Nokia agreement as a basis for lowering expected TDMA royalties.

in this view, then, if anyone is gambling, regarding a rate with Nokia, it could possibly be IDCC managment. IDCC management may speculate that timing the Nokia agreement with that of Ericd's court date, may produce more favorable results for IDCC relative to court fodder. if this were such the case, then F&J may have more input than previously imagined

i still see Ericd playing a limited role in Nokia's final royalty rate quotes with IDCC


**Nokia has stated, in public investor meetings, that they gambled in regard to different digital standards and handset models...but that they quickly forsook such methods when they lost much money on such practices

Jim, that is a great trick site. I would really like to know the secret to how it works. I hope that is not a sealed document! LOL

To add to mschere's question, whch is:

Question for techies..Does IDCC's NTDD or WTDD technology and devices have any value in CDMA2000 going forward? Any input would be most appreciated..TIA

If WTDD does have implications making it desirable to be used in a CDMA2000 setting, can the advantages be utilized in a cost effective manner? Would it be more expensive to use WTDD in a CDMA2000 system?

laranger -

So you may be suggesting that the 8K may have been made for the benefit of a class in investors that may not previously had access to this information. This would be done to provide a level playing field to ALL investors.

Stated differently, at least one of the industry leaders (read: Nok, Ericy, etc) which has had this information available NOW WANTS TO BECOME AN INVESTOR IN IDCC!!!
These possible investors previously had an advantage over most investors. So before they could buy IDCC shares, all investors need to have access to the same information!

PS: Sorry Tornado

What a mystery unless . . .

Now is the time to officially notify other infringers of 2G technology (read: Motorola, lucent, etc) that IDCC is in a position to collect royalties and these companies need to be able to review contracts that have been made “public” (read: readily accessible or common knowledge).

These SEC filings may not be to facilitate the Ericy case but to initiate the ultimate result of that legal proceeding.

Just speculation on my part.

WayHaw -


...but what if there is some relationship in the cross-license agreements between the majors that would hint of a shared liability of the impending damages E is about to incur.

That is what I was also referencing in my post ...Unless that description applies to a period prior to 1/1/02

TFWG -


"ESTIMATED future settlements related to asserted infringement based on probable outcome"

Unless that description applies to a period prior to 1/1/02

Just a thought

mschere -

Review Dr. J's list of recent insider sales transactions and assume he plans on making some more. This will allow you to reach the conclusion that he has not lost it! LOL

OT: Bill Gates - Any know if he happens to be loitering in the southern part of France this week?

rmarchma -

"dual-mode handsets in Japan raise an interesting royalty calculation"

The answer that I would like to see for all dual-mode handsets is that the "highest royalty rate prevails" and the lesser royalty rate is superceded for that particular model.

Is this a true statement?

Beijing knows that the first and some of the most important Qualcomm patents expire in about six years. You can picture it counting down the days on the calendar

From Ironair on Ihub' Qcom Board (Host: Data Rox)

Motorola gambles big on Linux, Sinocapitalism

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/29361.html By Andrew Orlowski in Cannes Posted: 18/02/2003 at 09:15 GMT

Inspired or insane, you'll have to decide, but Motorola yesterday vowed to make Linux the mainstay of its low and midrange phones.

This has much to do with its China strategy, the result of its pioneering forays in basing design and manufacturing on the continent, and using feedback from Asian markets with experiments such as the Accompli 008. Judging from the first example, the A835 smartphone, the results are already impressive, and Motorola could be the first to ride this wave that weds a disruptive technology (Linux) to a disruptive economic model (China's quite unique version of state-owned capitalism) all the way to prosperity.

Or it could, as we suggested at a press conference yesterday, simply walk away from this as it has with so many previous initiatives.

It took some goading to prod the executives into a passionate defense of the new Linux plus Java strategy.

Since Motorola had trumpeted past partnerships with Palm and Symbian only to walk away, why should we believe that it had sticking power this time?

Scott Durchslag, corporate VP of strategy and business development took up the gauntlet. After some non-too-convincing 'Well, why not?' noises from his superiors, Scott explained that Motorola saw Linux+Java as a disruptive technology for the following reasons:

"It's different to what we've done in the past," he told us, "It's all about a platform."

"We don't have to write all the code. There's also an advantage from the cost point of view - there's no licensing cost, so you can tap the codebases and you don't need to have teams of engineers."

That translates as - you don't need to have teams of Motorola (or Symbian) engineers doing the work, when you can have Linux coders doing it for free.

"The next great application won't come from some middle-aged guy in Helsinki," he said, pointedly.

And Scott didn't see the operating system as a great value proposition in itself:

"We do not believe the OS is strategic, it's what's higher up the stack that matters. What runs underneath that is interesting to some but to the consumer and the experience it's higher up the stack."

Ron Garriques, senior VP for phones in the EMEA region added that carriers have "next to zero" chance of customizing their phones. "Carriers are in charge," he said. (A theme we shall return to often this week, as it seems to be haunting the conference).

Scott pointed to the enthusiasm that the announcement had generated on Slashdot as vindication. This was, he told us offstage, the single biggest platform pledge for handheld Linux by any major manufacturer. And in this, he is probably correct. By walking away from Symbian and Nokia, Motorola is unlocking a Pandora's Box of competitive forces from which it might or might not be able to profit. That alone makes it one of the year's most intriguing moves, but is it one born of confidence and long-term commitment, or a desperate move to stem the success of Nokia's Symbian/Series 60 licensing strategy?

Recompile my phone, please - I've got a call coming in
First, a little context.

Strange things are happening in the mobile phone business, but underpinning all these moves is the question of whether manufacturing itself should be oriental or occidental. It's a power game in which Eastern manufacturers seek to gain more of the R&D expertise and therefore the design of these devices, or whether they should remain sweatshop assembly lines as they are in the PC business. Sweatshops for the likes of Dell, who employ Asian contract manufacturers simply because there aren't enough prisoners in the USA to provide cheap labor.

But phones are consumer devices, which Eastern manufacturers do very well indeed, and so the Panasonics and the erstwhile Chinese Sonys, quite justifiably, see no reason to kow-tow to today's Western industry leaders. Especially since in the phone business, unlike the PC business, they don't actually need the vaunted Microsoft or Intel brand or know-how to sell a device. As we saw yesterday, courtesy of Mr Yui Kaye Ho, who is general manager of Motorola's Smartphone products in Beijing, China has produced a tiny Linux/Java smartphone that does decent MP3 playback, excellent video and of course does PIM and phone too. Underestimate the brilliance of Chinese engineering at your peril.

The response of Western manufacturers - Nokia, Sun and others alike - has been to have it both ways. All pledge to a new 'low cost' model, which centres the R&D firmly in the West, while ruthlessly harvesting the Asian assembly lines as low-cost supply chains. They supplement this with licensing models, which allow competing manufacturers to share technology (Sun with Java, Nokia with Symbian/Series 60) and produce 'clones'. but this strategy is simply a more elaborate, more subtle form of ownership than the Wintel model: the real ownership, and therefore leadership, remains in Helsinki or Mountain View.

Motorola's gamble ought to be seen in this context. It's as much a response to Nokia's success in licensing Symbian/Series 60 as a heartfelt blow for open source freedom. Given Motorola's track record in deciding on a platform (PalmOS, Symbian OS) (Taligent, PowerPC - Ed) and sticking to it, some cynicism would be justified.

This move is also, we should point out, less than what it claims to be. The much vaunted "freedom" offered by basing a phone on a Linux OS is largely illusory. No carrier is going to recompile a kernel to differentiate its phone from another carriers simply because of Linux. Just because it can, that doesn't mean it will.

The "differentiation" Motorola talked about here today takes place on a cosmetic level or with the application and services set that the carrier chooses to bundle with the device. The consumer and the application developer has no more freedom than they had before. And remember, the real application APIs here are Java, not POSIX.

However, you can bet that brilliant Chinese technologists will take this offering and run with it. We hope they do, if only because it promises to add to our vocabulary immensely. We're used to describing the world in terms we already know - such as that ancient MBA staple of "horizontal" and "vertical" industries - proven by a business model we already "know" - the PC business. This is something entirely new. Anyone who patronizes the Chinese or otherwise underestimates the potential of China's state-owned capitalism to own an increasing share of its IP could be in for a nasty surprise.

(Beijing knows that the first and some of the most important Qualcomm patents expire in about six years. You can picture it counting down the days on the calendar).

Full marks to Moto for appreciating this. It's looking to the future, even if it might be looking into the future with both hands over its eyes. And who wouldn't?