Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Nokia's Preminet aims to chill Qualcomm's BREW
By Ben Charny CNET News.com October 24, 2004, 4:55 PM PT

SAN FRANCISCO--Cell phone maker Nokia on Sunday unveiled Preminet, a "one-stop shop" for wireless operators to sell ring tones, games, picture messaging and other cell phone paraphernalia, a move that opens a new battle front with nemesis Qualcomm.

Preminet is very similar to Qualcomm's BREW, which is now used by about three dozen carriers.

Nokia's new system excludes BREW applications, instead favoring ones based on Sun Microsystems' J2ME programming language. BREW was rejected because its proliferation is no match for J2ME, which is embedded in nearly one-third of the world's 1.7 billion cell phones, said Nokia director Steen Thygesen. By comparison, Qualcomm estimated in October there were 38 million BREW devices on the market.

"BREW is an interesting, proprietary solution for an early stage market," Thygesen said. "It's for carriers that want to get a start. We're looking at a system for the longer term market."

A Qualcomm spokeswoman had no comment.

Nokia and Qualcomm last clashed in May 2003, when Nokia, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics announced plans to develop phone chips based on the CDMA standard. Qualcomm owns many of the patents to CDMA, and generates a lion's share of revenue selling CDMA chips, or licensing its intellectual property to chipmakers.

The latest Nokia move directs a spotlight on the wireless data market, which currently represents about 5 percent of annual revenue but wireless operators believe that number will ultimately grow to 20 percent. Juha Christensen, president of the mobile and device business at Macromedia, said he believes data services revenue will eventually dwarf revenue generated by voice calls. "Voice will start fading into the background," he said during a Sunday CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2004 trade show panel. Nokia unveiled Preminet at the same show.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-5424317.html