The negative mention of Nokia was only in the fact that IMHO they will soon need to obtain a licensing agreement from QCOM, and potentially start using their 1XMC ASICS, or lose the ability to sell phones to Sprint, Verizon, Korea (if they sell any there now...) and others. That and the fact that their much publicized GPRS/EDGE systems are now starting to furiously backpedal on their advertised data rates and implementation dates...
I'm convinced it will soon become obvious that the 3G system race is going to be very one-sided, and the systems when implemented will lean heavily towards CDMA2000 (QCOM).
I've never held Nokia, although in hindsight it would have been a profitable investment. I think they do a wonderful job of growing/maximizing their GSM base, and to date that has been very profitable. Contrary to a lot of the news releases though, 3G is going to be driven by time to market, and data rates. Both of these are going to put NOK in a bad position unless they change something soon.
Any demise in NOK stock could be a great buying opportunity, depending on how they address the situation. If, as with Ericsson, they determine it's in their best interests to swallow their pride and cut a deal for QCOM's IPR, I think they could do as ERICY did. If not, I don't know... they could continue to do quite well for a long time, but I think it will eventually come back to haunt them.
Congrats on the earnings with Ericsson. I think they've got a great future ahead, since they've become more technology agnostic. They are still jockeying for position in some cases, but nobody can be faulted for a little of that...
DWB |
