InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[blueskywaves]

Most terms of the partnership weren't revealed. Nokia says it will get a small royalty fee on each chipset sold. One goal is to grab momentum from Qualcomm.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ibd/030516/tech_1.html

Did you catch this one, Rox? I recall that after the 3/14 settlement Ericsson also announced that they were going to be more aggressive in going after GSM royalties, particularly royalties from those pesky Asian handset manufacturers.

If I am correct in reading this then we may be seeing the European manufactuers -- Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens -- starting to set up patent barriers to offset the significant manufacturing cost advantages of the Asian manufacturers.

Samsung is a good example. Here's the kind of vertical integration advantages that Samsung brings to the table that I'm sure Nokia is watching closely.

From that Hiptop analysis:

Samsung ASIC with an ARM7 core acts as the primary applications processor, which itself is supported by a 16-Mbyte Samsung SDRAM. Samsung also supplies the lithium-ion battery and high-resolution LCD, reinforcing the notion of a deeper design involvement by the South Korean manufacturer.

Another example is the camera phone modules that are only available from 2 Japanese manufacturers.

20%-30% component cost advantage here, 20%-30% component cost advantage there and pretty soon a complacent manufacturer is on the same kind of slippery slope that Ericsson found itself on a few years ago.