Another cut at this weeks news:
>> QUALCOMM, ERICSSON ARM-IN-ARM
From the February 7, 2000 issue of Wireless Week By Brad Smith
wirelessweek.com
Less than 12 months ago Qualcomm and Ericsson were in a Texas courtroom arguing over CDMA patents. Now, the two have embraced in partnership.
Each of the companies is providing its own expertise to develop an intricate Bluetooth solution for CDMA handsets. The deal couldn't have been put together a year ago, before the two companies dropped their patent suits and countersuits and Ericsson purchased Qualcomm's infrastructure manufacturing business. Their partnership puts them in league to sell Bluetooth solutions to all CDMA handset manufacturers.
The agreement, announced last week, calls for the Microelectronics Division of Ericsson, based in Sweden, to develop a Bluetooth-compatible radio that will work hand-in-hand with a Bluetooth digital baseband processor from Qualcomm. The two will be married in a Qualcomm chip set called its Mobile Station Modem for use in future CDMA handsets. The product provides the internal communication in a handset that allows it to talk with other Bluetooth devices, such as laptop computers, and CDMA networks.
Ericsson already has a similar setup for GSM handsets, which it developed in its own labs and went to Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies Division for its expertise in the air interface, according to Bengt Callmer, spokesman for Ericsson Microelectronics in Stockholm. Ericsson won't deliver its first CDMA handset until this summer. Handsets using its GSM Bluetooth solution are just starting to be produced in quantity.
Ericsson has been a leader in developing Bluetooth as a wireless connection for electronic devices such as handsets, laptops and personal digital assistants. Bluetooth--enabled products recently have started appearing-an Ericsson headset was the first last fall-but aren't expected to be widely available until the second half of 2000. With Bluetooth integrated into a handset, advocates of the technology say users easily can update schedules and contact directories and even transmit digital photos back and forth.
The Ericsson-Qualcomm Bluetooth product will be marketed to all CDMA handset manufacturers, Callmer says. Prototypes should be available this summer and handsets using the solution should be available starting in 2001. The solution will be integrated into future iterations of the Qualcomm Mobile Station Modem digital baseband solution.
Ericsson and Qualcomm are the first to announce a joint development of an integrated Bluetooth solution for CDMA handsets but probably won't be the last. Still, for companies engaged in bitter internecine warfare a year ago being first out of the chute with a product like this is quite a rarity. <<
- Eric - |
