Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Qualcomm Offers Chips to Allow 6-Megapixel Cameras
Thu May 13, 2004 10:10 AM ET


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mobile phone technology provider Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday unveiled a new line of chips with ultra-high resolution camera features and said it was making inroads in advanced new markets.
In a volley of announcements coinciding with the company's spring Wall Street analyst briefing here, Qualcomm introduced the first of its "7000" series, all-in-one chips that offer up to 6-megapixel cameras and full-motion camcorder recording.

Six-million pixel image quality would make cameraphones based on Qualcomm chips competitive with the most advanced digital cameras being sold in consumer markets worldwide.

Qualcomm, supplier of the basic technology inside many of the mobile phones sold in U.S. and major Asian markets, said it was making progress winning over handset makers in so-called sideband-CDMA markets in Europe, Japan, China and elsewhere.

Wideband-CDMA is the emerging standard for third-generation wireless networks that is now becoming widely available in Europe, Japan and other countries. It transmits not just voice calls but video and hefty e-mail attachments to mobile phones.

The company said 21 W-CDMA wireless device makers have chosen Qualcomm's mobile chipsets and software, giving Qualcomm the broadest set of customers of any W-CDMA chipmaker, including major rival Texas Instruments Inc.

Qualcomm said it had added new W-CDMA handset makers including Taiwan's BenQ Corp. (2352.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) , Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503.T: Quote, Profile, Research) , and Vitelcom Mobile of Malaga, Spain, a privately held supplier to Spain and Latin America.

These customers join previously announced major handset makers in China, Korea, Japan and North America including brands like Samsung, LG, Sanyo and Huawei.

The company said also optimistic it can win new business in Japan after NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile service provider, adopts the global W-CDMA standard sometime in the middle of 2005.

In addition, Qualcomm said it had signed up Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Mobile unit to use Qualcomm's BREW software to create wireless services, including a BREW-version of Yahoo's popular Yahoo Messenger instant messaging communications program.

Shares of San Diego-based Qualcomm were off 9 cents, at $63.80, in early trading.

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