Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Qualcomm Bolsters Lead with New Chips
By Vincent Ryan
NewsFactor Network
May 22, 2003
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21579.html
Qualcomm has unveiled a new batch of top-of-the-line mobile chipsets, bolstering its leadership in the market for processors that power mobile phones. The new chipset, the 7000 series, was designed to address the need for handset devices that support 3G multimedia -- high quality audiovisual and gaming graphics -- and high data rates for wireless data applications.
The MSM7000-family chip incorporates a dual-CPU architecture. One processor is optimized for modem functions, and the second is available as an application processor that can be used to download large files. Previously, Qualcomm chipsets used a single processor for both functions, which drains battery power more quickly.
Bluetooth Built In
The lead time for these chips to make it into phones is a couple of years, Johan Lodenius, senior vice president of marketing at Qualcomm, told NewsFactor, so the company is foreseeing capabilities that will be demand in late 2005 or 2006. By that time, Lodenius said, most phones will have streaming-media capabilities and the ability to play DVDs. Qualcomm also is integrating 802.11 and Bluetooth support into the phone so that handsets can talk to PCs and other wireless devices.
The chipsets in the MSM7000 family will support all 3G-wireless standards, including variations of CDMA 2000 1X, GSM, GPRS and wideband CDMA. Samples of the MSM7000 chipsets are expected to become available in 2004. The chips will range between 300 MHz on the low end and 1 GHz on the high end.
Low Cost, Low Power
Qualcomm also introduced several other chipsets that are in development. The MSM6025 is a cost-effective product designed to enable wireless data applications in entry-level handsets and drive CDMA 2000 1X adoption in new markets. The CDMA 2000 1X standard provides ISDN-like speeds for data transmission. There is demand for cost-sensitive data applications in Southeast Asia and Latin America, Lodenius said. Samples of the chip are expected to ship in the third quarter.
Qualcomm also announced the MSM6725, a chipset that supports a 3.5G technology called "high speed downlink packet access," or HSDPA, which provides next-generation data speeds of up to 5.2 Mbps. The MSM6275 will provide increased processing power and graphics performance at low power consumption. The chipset also will offer enhanced multimedia functionality for videoconferencing, streaming video, music playback, gaming, camera and camcorder features.
"Our goal is to be the first with a commercially available HSDPA solution," Lodenius said. "Everything in this chip will run at higher screen resolutions."
Market Challenges
Market leader Qualcomm owns about 90 percent of the market for cell-phone chips that use CDMA technology. CDMA, or code division multiple access, is a fast-growing alternative to GSM, the dominant wireless standard outside the United States.
But the company is facing new challenges. Last week, Texas Instruments and Nokia teamed up with STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest chipmaker, to develop a new CDMA 2000 1X chipset for mobile phone manufacturers. The increased competition could put downward pressure on chipset prices and cut into Qualcomm's market share.
Qualcomm is comfortable with its market lead and is developing a forward position in the wideband CDMA market, Lodenius said. "The TI-Nokia solution is a patchwork solution," Lodenius said. In addition, "Nokia is a competitor to all the companies they're trying to sell to."
In related news, the South China Morning Post reported that China Unicom has halted a GSM 1X high-speed data trial with Qualcomm in Suzhou due to an outbreak of SARS
Mindy - Doesn't really matter whether Worldcom builds GSM or CDMA networks.
Long term everything mobile will go to WCDMA in that area. The revenues of GSM vs CDMA are insigificant, despite the hype of Congressman Issa.
The real money will be in WLLs - and that will be CDMA. Just look at India. Iraq is existing with a 60's phone system, similar to what Germany has had under Deutsche Telekom. The solution is to ignore the installed system and build something new. A good similar example is Tashkent, Uzbeckistan, formerly the 4th largest city in the USSR, where land-line phones (POTS) are useless because everyone now has a mobile.
Of course, a Iraq contract would jump the stock in the short run. But that is merely hype, not fundamentals.
DUMB LUCK INVESTOR: Learning Technicals the Hard Way
By Peter D. Henig, Optionetics.com
5/9/2003 9:00:00 AM
Three years ago I thought I was a very rich guy. I had what amounted to 1000 shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) when the stock was trading at $140 per share. (It had just split 2-for-1 when Qualcomm was soaring into the stratosphere at $280 per share.) I wasn’t Bill Gates rich, but like most other investors, I was smiling.
Little did I know hanging onto those shares would soon make me feel far more like Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof. Qualcomm sunk heavily to ultimately trade in the low $30 range and, though I sold off many shares, I had still kept some to remind me of just how much I liked the stock.
Qualcomm’s CDMA technology for mobile chips has always made sense – with its ability to convert voice into data for easy transmission – keeping me a believer in the company even as the stock has steadily drifted from the upper left corner of the screen to the lower right. If I were a technical analyst I would have sold long ago, but as a fundamentalist, I hung on tight. I was also emotionally attached to the stock – a very big mistake! This was my stock, I thought. I wanted to own it. Now I think twice.
A Mixed Bag
The experience on the way down has offered several lessons in paying as much attention to the charts as to the fundamentals, particularly now that Qualcomm suffers from further lackluster performance.
Investment firm Moors & Cabot just downgraded Qualcomm from Sector Outperform to Sector Perform for a variety of reasons including: increased competition from Texas Instruments in CDMA technology; sluggish international demand for CDMA chipsets which has bloated inventories; margin pressure from competitors Nokia (NOK) and Samsung; and Wall Street forecasts for earnings which may still be too high. Add in additional bearishness surrounding fallout from the SARS epidemic – China represents one of Qualcomm’s fastest growing markets – and many investors have chosen to steer clear of the company.
As a result, Qualcomm represents the latest case of whether to remain a believer in the long term potential of a favored company (particularly a high-tech one) or bail out based on soft – and softening – short term technical indicators.
Technical analysis trading website, StockConsultant.com, describes Qualcomm’s technicals this way, “Possible breakdown below $30.53, no support in area just below.” With an initial downside target of $28.34, StockConsultant.com says the chances of Qualcomm reaching that level are “excellent”, with the next target on the downside being $26.67. The path of least resistance, in no uncertain terms, is clearly lower.
Which Way Did It Go?
Investors would have a right to be confused.
At a time when the tech slump appears to be bottoming, when the market itself is showing momentum to the upside and when bellwether companies like Dell (DELL) and Cisco (CSCO) are proving that strong earnings remain possible even within the high-tech industry, Qualcomm’s market action is almost at odds with itself; market action which at once represents post-war market confusion and economic uncertainty, sandwiched between bullish longer term fundamentals and lousy shorter term-technicals. Currently, the technicians are winning.
Should Qualcomm investors stay the course, seeing beyond the static of technical indicators into a future confirming strong market opportunities and growth? The rub here is that little of that long term bullishness is supporting the stock. As StockConsultant.com points out, according to the charts, there’s even less further support beneath current share price levels.
Despite estimates forecasting that 20 percent of cell phones will be using Qualcomm’s CDMA technology by the end of this year, that sales will rise by 33 percent in 2003 and earnings will increase by 42 percent, technicals are now governing a market in post-war confusion. On the upside, momentum is carrying some stocks higher. On the downside, bears are still at work where support levels are weak or absent.
In other words, despite advice that it might be safe to jump back into stocks as they trade with a bias to the upside, investors should be careful not to jump into certain stocks too soon. What support should be there may simply be mere promises of better times farther down the road.
Peter D. Henig
Contributing Writer and Trading Strategist
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site
http://www.optionetics.com/articles/article_full.asp?idNo=8318
'Phone threat' to air safety
By Tom Symonds and Simon Montague
BBC Transport Correspondents
There is new evidence passengers using mobile phones endanger aircraft, according to a Civil Aviation Authority report obtained by BBC News Online.
In tests, compasses froze or overshot, navigation bearings were inaccurate and there was interference on radio channels.
Research supports pilots who have complained about mobiles interfering with aircraft systems and distractions in cockpits, the report says.
It urges airlines to impose safety measures including: Ensuring flight crews turn off mobiles on the flight deck Check-in staff asking passengers to confirm mobiles in hold luggage are off Reminder notices in airport departure lounges and boarding gates
Since 1996, pilots have reported 35 mobile phone-related safety incidents, including false warnings in the cockpit, distractions causing aircraft to stray accidentally onto runways or fly at the wrong altitude, interrupted radio communications and multiple safety systems malfunctions.
Last September, factory worker Faiz Chopdat from Blackburn was jailed for four months after being convicted of recklessly endangering an aircraft.
He repeatedly refused to turn off his mobile phone on an Air 2000 flight from Egypt to Manchester.
And in October, Russian businessman Sergey Lebedev was fined £2,500 after forcing a British Airways jet to abort a landing at Manchester Airport.
Cabin crew spent so long arguing with him about whether he would turn off his mobile they were unable to prepare the plane.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/2992973.stm
Published: 2003/05/01 16:00:55
==
Note: the phones in all these cases are GSM phones. I would expect similar results for CDMA. Analogue systems (AMPS and NMT)would probably have more severe impacts.
Geld, thanks for the OMNITRACS reminder, LOL
- I've been a big OMNITRACs proponent for years, here and on Raging Bull (see the archives for tech analysis).
I still hold that the OMNITRACS business is a cash cow, equal to the current stock price (worth about $30-40/share). CDMA is an added benefit, IMHO.
I think too many get blinded by the future of CDMA/1x/WCDMA, and don't see that QCOM is a company making money today, and pushing most of it back into R&D (OK, I got my dividend too). Now, I believe the future of cellular technology is via CDMA (what an education that has been for this civil/mechanical engineer), but so many forget the small things, like OMNITRACS. (Such as ability to track hijacked containers in south east asia.)
I know that some here will argue against the growth of truck/container tracking, and I will conceed in the USA. But the larger market is in the developing world, where there is even more need to track shipments due to uncertain conditions (like theft).
RE: Chip to cut reliance on Qualcomm
The article has some confusing assertions, and conflicting statements. It isn't clear who is developing the chip to be used, Samsung or Eonex Tech. And the assertion of lower royalties is based on gaining more leverage in royalty talks with Qualcomm, so Qualcomm will decide to lower the royalty rates. Not likely.
Samsung Electronics Co. and LG electronics Inc., the two largest mobile handset producers in Korea, are developing core modem chips for mobile handsets.
Success in those projects would mean that Korean handset manufacturers can cut huge costs in chip purchase prices and royalties that they pay Qualcomm.
"Costs saved by a cut in royalties and imports may amount to 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) in the next three years," said an official from Eonex Technologies, Inc., a software developing firm.
LG is currently testing a chip developed by Eonex, which supports the third generation wideband code division multiple access technology.
So, is Eonex a software development firm, or a chip development firm? Or both? And is Samsung actually developing their own chip, or using Eonex's chip?
Checking Eonex's website, I find they have big plans,
EoNex Technologies Incorporated, a company founded on April 17, 2000 in Korea, designs wireless modem chips and protocol stack software focusing on the 2.5G and 3G wireless technologies. EoNex employees possess unique experience in development and commercialization of the 2G and 2.5G modem chips and protocol stack software in Korean CDMA market.
EoNex will successively introduce the following products from 2002 through 2004.
W-CDMA single-mode modem.
W-CDMA / cdma2000.1x dual-mode modem.
W-CDMA / GPRS / cdma2000.1x triple-mode modem.
W-CDMA / 1x EV-DO / cdma2000.1x triple-mode modem.
W-CDMA / TD-SCDMA dual-mode modem.
http://www.eonex.co.kr/abouteonex.htm
And more on their background,
Eonex, founded in April 2000, has some 40 engineers, most of whom came from Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom and ETRI. With 2.7 billion won of paid-in capital, SK Telecom is one of Eonex's largest shareholders. Nov 2001
http://kn.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2001/09/11/200109110025.asp
It sounds to me that Samsung and LG are actually shifting MSM suppliers from QCOM to Eonex, rather than developing their own chips. This will lead to lower revenues to QCOM from chip sales.
BTW, if anyone wants a job at Eonex, they state, "Share the Career Opportunity for High Motivation and Exciting Achievement"
Parlez-vous français?
Congressional Lawmakers Balk At Plan To Deploy French/German Cell Phone Technology In Post-War Iraq
WASHINGTON, DC – Members of Congress are quickly adding their names to a letter drafted by California Rep. Darrell Issa (R-49) objecting to a proposal by the DOD and USAID to use federal funds to build a communications system in post-war Iraq based on the European Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) cell phone standard.
The draft of the letter being circulated to lawmakers is addressed to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and USAID Administrator, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain. The full text of the letter appears below:
March 26, 2003
The Honorable Wendy J. Chamberlain
Assistant Administrator
U.S. Agency for International Development
Bureau for Asia and the Near East
1300 Pennsylvania, N.W.
Room 4.9
Washington, D.C. 20523
Dear Ambassador Chamberlain:
We understand that the United States Armed Forces and the U.S. Reconstruction and Civil Affairs Office are planning to deploy a cell phone system in Iraq that will be used by these and other organizations to meet immediate post-conflict mobile communications requirements. We presume that this system would be operated by the United States for a period of time and then privatized. We understand that decisions about the rollout of this system are being made in real time.
We have learned that planners at the Department of Defense and USAID are currently envisioning using Federal appropriations to deploy a European-based wireless technology known as GSM (Groupe Speciale Mobile) for this new Iraqi cell phone system.
If European GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid on the technology would flow to French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders.
U.S. developed CDMA (code-division multiple access) cell phone technology is widely recognized as technically superior to European GSM technology and is deployed in 50 nations worldwide. In addition, we understand that CDMA cell phones include an integrated global positioning system (GPS) feature that allows the precision location of callers in times of emergency. European GSM cell phones do not have integrated GPS. If U.S. relief workers in Iraq are equipped with CDMA cell phones with GPS, they will be immediately locatable in case of terrorist attack or kidnapping. Finally, because U.S. CDMA systems are compliant with the U.S. Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, this system provides all necessary access for law enforcement in post-conflict Iraq.
Finally, we understand that there are already quickly deployable U.S. commercial proposals to commence immediately with the installation of U.S. CDMA technology in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of American jobs depend on the success of U.S.-developed wireless technologies like CDMA. If the U.S. government deploys U.S- developed CDMA in Iraq, then American companies will manufacture most of the necessary equipment here in the United States and benefit from the associated royalties.
We urge you to use American developed CDMA cell phone technology. Thank you for your consideration on this important matter.
Sincerely,
http://www.issa.house.gov/
=====
Comment: Isn't easier to hack into GSM signals? Maybe that's why DoD wants GSM;)
Iraq's mobile network - Qualcomm to follow the tanks?
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 27/03/2003 at 11:48 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/29974.html
And in a flash, the war on terror started to morph into the war for CDMA. North Korea, watch out - there's a jumping-off point right next door. US wireless company Qualcomm has often been described as the civilian wing of the military-industrial complex, so perhaps the only thing that should surprise us is how speedily its arrival in the wake of the tanks in Iraq occurred.
The new Iraq will need (among other things) a mobile phone network, GSM phone networks are supplied by ungrateful and despicable Europeans*, so any attempt by the DoD and USAID to install anything other than a US-designed CDMA system would be, would be... But we'll let the Congressman tell you all about it later.
Spread-spectrum radio began life as a military technology; Qualcomm grew fat on Pentagon pork defense contracts in the late Reagan years as it sought to tame CDMA for civilian use. Which it eventually did, after many delays, and with some admirable panache. Only CDMA arrived, when it eventually did arrive - three years after co-founder Dr Jacobs promised - too late to make an impact on the cellphone industry as it was. The world had multilaterally decided on an older time-division digital technology several years previously.
The result is that the world has a single standard, and enjoys economies of scale and very, very cool gadgets. The USA on the other hand decided to allow four incompatible standards to battle it out, thus blocking innovation from overseas, and allowing cellphone carriers to play atrocious bait and switch games with cellphone subscribers here. Er, that's us.
But back to the Gulf.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R., San Diego) yesterday issued a rallying cry for the new, reconstructed Iraq to embrace CDMA instead of GSM. Issa is urging Congress reps to sign a round-robin letter to Donald Rumsfeld, denouncing GSM ("French" and outdated) and urging the cause of the Q stuff instead. Qualcomm, we note chipped in $4,500 for Issa's 2002 campaign, but then so did lots of other outfits. We hope the Iraqis like their Centrinos, too.
Says Issa: "We have learned that planners at the Department of Defense and USAID are currently envisioning using Federal appropriations to deploy a European-based wireless technology known as GSM ('Groupe Speciale Mobile'- this standard was developed by the French) for this new Iraqi cell phone system."
This is fighting talk, as the mere mention of the word "entree" is enough to send a patriotic USAian into paroxysms of rage, right now. It's also quite incorrect, and ETSI anoraks will tell you all about Groupe Speciale Mobile, should you let them. WIth almost a billion users, in over 150 countries, GSM is the world's cellphone standard. But let Mr Issa continue:
"If European [sic] GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system will be manufactured in France by Alcatel, in Germany by Siemens, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe."
He seems a little vague here about "Northern Europe" and is very coy about naming the Nordic telephony pioneers explicitly: Sweden and Finland. But he continues, a little shakily:
"Therefore, if our understanding of this situation is correct, because of ill-considered planning, the U.S. government will soon hand U.S. taxpayer dollars over to French, German, and other European cell phone equipment companies to build the new Iraqi cell phone system."
"This is not acceptable" he cries.
Er well, no. American manufacturers such as Lucent and Motorola are very keen to export GSM technology into foreign markets indeed. And the European competitors may well be Siemens, but are just as likely to be LM Ericsson and Nokia, from Sweden and Finland respectively. But they're not quite on the wrong side. Yet?
Aside from Issa's objections to the possibility of the French and Germans getting contracts, there is, he says, a security issue at stake here:
"... we understand that CDMA cell phones include an integrated global positioning system (GPS) feature that allows the precision location of callers in times of emergency. [do we detect the teensiest of a briefing here?] European GSM cell phones do not have integrated GPS. If US relief workers in Iraq are equipped with CDMA cell phones with GPS, they will be immediately locatable in case of terrorist attack or kidnapping. Finally, because US CDMA systems are compliant with the US Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, this system provides all necessary access for law enforcement in post-conflict Iraq."
Depending on who's doing the enforcing, of course. But yes, there do seem to be roaming advantages in the case of US security people commuting between the US and Iraq. We could observe that the European networks make a pretty good fist of figuring out where you are without GPS, and we might mention that there are other points about CDMA GPS. But we won't - not today, anyway.
Issa's punchline is quite unambiguous:
"If the U.S. government deploys US- developed CDMA in Iraq, then American companies will manufacture most of the necessary equipment here in the United States."
Er, wrong again. What bomb-shattered bits of Mesopotamia that may survive will be as intrigued by Lucent's 4G network as anything that "Europeans" have to offer. Issa's shaky pitch is founded on a shaky assumption: that the US national interest relies on one single patent hoarder, in his home constituency, and not the great wealth that the real US-based manufacturers could bring home.
You must question, once again, how a patent licensing company came to identify itself so closely with the national interest. Qualcomm's key patents were filed in 1989. Under the seventeen-year rule, the most important of these will expire in three years time.
Patient Mesopotamians may be wise to sit this one out, but we doubt anybody will ask them. ®
* Some years back The Register picked up the latest edition of what was then a very fat magazine bloated with lovely, lovely PC advertising, but which is now sadly slimmed. And boggled we were to read the amazing diatribe on poison European GSM technology, written by someone who, as far as we know, remains a senior executive of the rump of the publishing company. Had he been getting good brief from something beginning with Q?, we wondered. GSM was nothing like as good as the home-grown technology that was just around the corner. GSM was dangerous. GSM would stop pacemakers, hospitals would cease to function, planes would fall out of the sky... Wheelchairs would run haywire into the paths of uncoming trucks. Excellent stuff, and no, we're not making it up - he was. But at least you seem to get a more sedate class of black propaganda these days.
re: Nokia Rel-5 WCDMA
My question on "WCDA Networks" was wondering if it is too early to call them networks yet. They are in the process of rolling out, and I haven't heard of any carrier that is much further along than interoperatbility testing. The article implied to me that the full global networks were about to happen (it is article 2048). Just how I read it, others may read it differently. Now, I'll agree that by the end of the year the situation will have considerably changed, and by then I might be willing to call the installed infrastructure a full "network"
Kyocera going after Nokia's young & trendy market?
I'm not suprised at all the product announcements going coming out in conjunction with the CTIA Wireless conterence, but the Kyocera Wireless articles made me do a double take. A phone called "Rave?" Hope Atty Gen Ashcroft doesn't hear about this ;) Plus Phantom, Slider, and Blade. Sounds like they are aiming at the teenage market. Considering how much more European teens use their wireless phones than Americans, this may be a good long-term strategy to hook them early. This phone maker has languished a bit since the acquistion from Qualcomm, so it is good to see them take some initiative again.
However, the statements from Nokia are interesting (post 2032),
Petersen said the CDMA phone market remains "unconsolidated," with no clear dominant supplier, which offers Nokia a chance to grow quickly as competitors fall away. "The way that the market has been architected, mainly by Qualcomm, means that a lot of these players have extreme problems making money," he said. "It's only a question of time before the market will consolidate. The model as such as a business model is not very attractive as it is now."
There is also the curious statement in post 2079, As the Nokia HSDPA solution is fully backwards compatible with current Nokia WCDMA networks... Current Nokia CDMA networks?
On the DB Conference, my views in addition to Jim Mullens,
- QCOM is one-stop shopping, be it 1xRTT (EV-DO) or UMTS/GSM, and the chip count is way down if the QCOM solution is selected. And if you want a clamshell, the other (ie, Nokian) solutions don’t fit. (oops, or is that Nokia, sorry, a Scandinavian grammar issue).
- No one else can do direct conversion architecture. No one is even close. QCOM has done GSM, who has done WCDMA? Plus the integration. Everything on one chip *voice, data, video, position, and sound. (Actually, 9 chips versus QCOM 2 chips)
- The Launchpad concept is the next category killer. Plus QCOM going from .13 microns to 9 nanometers. There is no competition (including Nokia, who was referred to in definite passing).
- For the Keiritsu, LG, Sanyo, and Samsung were mentioned all the time.
- Orders are strong, there are NO cancellations, and UMTS by year end. Plus strong replacement demand.
BTW, for other technicians, for the last two years QCOM has made MAJOR announcements on products in the second half of March. What rabbit will be pulled out of the hat this time? I’m not selling covered calls until I know.
New link up on QCOM website for tomorrow's Deutsche Bank Information Technology Hardware Conference
Presentation by Donald Schrock, Executive Vice President and Group President QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies Group.
It is on the IR page. It is a webcast this time, 8:45-9:15AM MT. You need to register in advance.
OT: RichB - On foreign aid, DIRECTLY provided by the government, as a percent of GNP (sorry, can't find GDP numbers) in 2001,
USA .11%
Germany .27%
France .34%
UK .32%
But, when you look at absolute numbers (2001),
USA 10.9B
Germany 4.9B
France 4.3B
UK 4.7B
However, the USA and the UK have been consistently increasing their foreign aid, France and Germany have been decreasing. Fact.
And the foreign aid measured is only that directly from governments, which greatly underestimates the US "contribution" (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation roughly $1M/day contribution doesn't count, while in Europe that would be funnelled through a government account). The statistics lie because the cultural basis is different.
Also not included in the US numbers are "Foreign Military Assistance" numbers, which are usually grossly understated (used car price versus new car price on a Humm-Vee with 200 miles on it).
If anyone has better numbers, please let me know. I think the US number is understated significantly to please the anti-America crowd, but I'm biased that way.
CNBC finally notices –
During the headlines, with Sue Herrera, just after 5:30PM EST,
“Cell phone maker Qualcomm declares a 5 cent dividend, its first quarterly dividend, and announces a 2-year stock buyback program worth nearly $2B.” [sorry, that is it]
Cell phone maker? Since when? (well, since Kyocera bought that division a few years ago). That another “growth company” is following the MSFT lead to say, we’re making money, lots of it, and are going to pay a dividend. I think CNBC either:
1. Missed a big story about the new economy – or –
2. It is only MSFT and QCOM that are making it out of the new economy.
PS – On Ricardo’s (RM) query on the 450Mhz issue regarding France – there is much more here than is apparent. This is the Tetris system replacement. Tetris is “sort of” the European equivalent to the North America Nextel IDEN corporate intercom system. Besides normal corporate comms, this includes all the local civil defense related comms systems. This is not a minor system. And, also likely to expand into a Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) replacement. While the data rate will never be as high at this freq, it is adequate for remote areas and civil defence – and it works in remote areas unlike so many others (see my postings from 3 years ago). And to repeat, this is not a minor market. CDMA fans can afford to wait while this one resolves itself. The only problem is if the EU jumps in with standards that don’t work, giving a several year delay at the cost of lives.
PPS – is there an ignore feature here on IH? I didn’t ignore Chucky at RB, but he is finally getting annoying. I don’t mind intelligent dissent. But this is blathering.
Verizon Delivers Webcam Access
=== I think the last few paragraphs is the kicker - possibly leading to significant revenue (ha) Is this the future 3G CDMA offers, strippers on your phone? ====
By Jay Wrolstad
Wireless NewsFactor
January 31, 2003
http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/20642.html
Verizon Wireless has hooked up with webcam technology frontrunner Logitech in launching a service that can deliver real-time video from just about anywhere to the carrier's Get It Now customers.
Subscribers with the appropriate phones and service contracts can view live images from personal or publicly installed web cameras, which have fast developed into watchful eyes on people, personal property and cityscapes.
Private, Public Access
Using Logitech's Mobile Video service, with support from mobile media applications provider generationPIX, Get It Now customers can get a look at Times Square or Las Vegas -- or they can tune in on private web cameras from a personalized "friends list," with permission from the camera owner.
When a private webcam is selected, phone users enter a password to connect with the one-way video directly on the handset's screen. If they so choose, a text message will alert them when a friend's camera comes online.
"It's a way to keep track of family or friends," Verizon Wireless spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson told NewsFactor. "Parents who are traveling or at the office can see their child at home. It's also fun to look at the communities covered by Logitech's public cameras." Logitech Mobile Video offers a list of public sites on its Web site, which can be accessed directly from a phone.
Fun Factor
To use the service, which costs US$5 per month, Get It Now customers download the software from Logitech to a Windows-based PC, then add it to the phone via Verizon's applications platform. It will work on most Get It Now-enabled phones, and the desktop version of the mobile video application will be included with all Logitech web cameras.
Nelson said Verizon is confident that webcam access will be popular among customers using the 1 million Get It Now handsets presently in circulation. "The service is geared for the youth market, and this is something they can enjoy," he said.
Millions of Cameras
Logitech, too, hopes to boost sales of its webcams by partnering with the number one U.S. wireless operator. "We want to increase awareness of what you can do with our cameras," company spokesperson Susan Ross told NewsFactor.
She said video instant messaging is the company's biggest application, and that Logitech wants to extend the webcam video experience on PCs to mobile phones.
Webcams are sprouting up everywhere. Ross cited an IDC study reporting that some 5 million webcams were sold in 2002. She added that Logitech holds a 40 to 50 percent market share.
X-Rated Fare
And while Logitech and other manufacturers tout the safety and security applications of their products, it is no secret that they have found a following among purveyors of X-rated content.
"Nobody wants to talk about that, but adult entertainment is a leading driver in the webcam market, just it was for the Internet," IDC analyst Keith Waryas told NewsFactor. "There is good reason to believe that it will increase data minutes for carriers and acceptance of data services. The question is, how will they handle it?"
Adding webcam video was a smart move for Verizon Wireless, Waryas said, agreeing that there is substantial demand for video on mobile phones. "It is not their job to regulate viewing; all they have to do is deliver the content," he said
Conference Call,
OK, for the first time in many, many quarters I did not listen to the quarterly conference call. So I obviously did not make my usual "out of the ordinary" observations on the non-CDMA (strict CDMA) performance numbers of QCOM (BTW, and additional 10,600 OMNITRACS units were shipped, giving a 10% growth rate).
So, Is there anything in the Q&A worth listening to? Was there much OMNITRACS diascussion? (long term folks know I think OMNITRACS alone is valued about $30-40/share, CDMA is surplus above that)
BTW, my basic Question is whether i should listen to teh QCOM Q&A. Opines