I don't think there are any fees involved... I haven't looked into GPS too much. It seems that at lest in Europe there's a lot more buzz centering on the triangulation approach. Cellpoint (CLPT) is now having another monster day. I think there are a lot of investors betting that at least some major manufacturers will endorse Cellpoint's technology. Presumably at least Ericsson. It's a very dangerous investment phase... a lot of enthusiasm, but no clear, binding commitments from manufacturers as far as I know. Kukkanen, say something!
Audiovox is one of those phone manufacturers with a very limited regional appeal. It's up enormously, based on the US sales spike. This will shock and surprise you, but I'm not very enthusiastic on smaller phone manufacturers with limited capacity and R&D muscle. Siemens and Samsung challenge I can just about buy - but not Audiovox, Alcatel or Philips.
Siemens and Samsung are strong on at least two continents, they have cool cutting edge tech like MP3, color displays, advanced WAP prototypes, etc. They would seem like candidates for the number three phone maker slot. Audiovox seems like a Wal-Mart kind of cheap & nasty approach to handset manufacturing - not much future there without superior volumes.
Tero |
