InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[ed_ferrari]

(from RealMoney.com)

Handset Horror
4/24/03 05:15 PM EDT

China is suddenly looking like a wireless meltdown point.

For what it's worth: This could be a critical piece of data that nobody is talking about -- yet.

It's what JP Morgan analyst Johnny Chan said to his firm's clients: "China handset inventory remains high exiting 1Q03. Even worse, SARS has started to impact the already slowing handset sales in China over the past four days, with sell-through in major cities down 40% (week over week). This will only exacerbate the handset inventory situation further."

See those numbers? Down 40% week over week, with a big impact seen in the past FOUR days! China was THE bright light in the world of handset sales. With SARS on the spread, it would seem consumers don't want to go handling handets in public, which isn't good for a host of handset-tied companies, including Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nokia.