You say tomayto, I say tomahto:
Upstarts seek to take market from NOK, which avoids CDMA.
JohnG
CDMA enables upstarts to steal share from leaders
Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Designs on China: Michael Wallace aims for the No 1 position
for Kyocera Wireless. Picture by Bien Perez
BIEN PEREZ
Asia's roll-out of Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA) systems over the next few years is expected
to create strong rivalry between upstart makers of
phones based on the advanced cellular technology and
wireless handset kingpins Nokia and Ericsson.
According to Bertrand Bidaud, research director for
Asia-Pacific telecommunications and electronic business
at Gartner Group, the steady regional deployment of
CDMA networks will give its handset suppliers "an
opportunity to close the gap" with today's top makers of
Global System for Mobile (GSM) phones.
During the past decade, Finland's Nokia and Sweden's
Ericsson have been at the forefront of increasing the
worldwide deployment of European-developed digital
GSM networks to replace outdated analogue systems.
GSM handsets from Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola of
the United States have become popular for use in the
cellular standard's 900, 1,800 and 1,900-megahertz
frequencies.
The arrival of US-developed CDMA, which provides
more robust use of available radio frequencies for
wireless communications, has given other manufacturers
a chance to compete in the market for cellular-phone
equipment.
Philippe Vallee, executive vice-president at smart-card
maker Gemplus, said South Korean companies were
well placed to steal the thunder from today's dominant
players, which are also releasing CDMA versions of
their popular handsets.
Representing the early acceptance of the CDMA
standard in their country, Samsung and LG Information
and Communications already produce CDMA phones
under their own and other companies' brands.
Mr Bidaud said companies such as Nokia and Ericsson,
which have strong brand recognition and marketing
organisations, would keep competitors at bay "in the
medium term".
Last week's staging of the fifth CDMA World Congress
in Hong Kong put the spotlight on two upstart CDMA
phone brands, Japan's Kyocera Wireless and
US-based NeoPoint.
Michael Wallace, senior director of international sales at
Kyocera, said "our goal is to be No 1" and that the
company expected to ramp up production in the next
few years.
"Obviously, the potential market in China is so huge that
we're looking forward to providing our handsets there,"
he said.
Kyocera is closely monitoring the CDMA development
efforts of China Unicom, the mainland's No 2 national
communications carrier and authorised CDMA
operator.
Kyocera designs, develops and manufactures a range of
CDMA handsets and accessories. The company was
created by integrating the handset design, development
and manufacturing expertise of CDMA pioneer
Qualcomm with Kyocera's global research and
technology resources.
Kevin Thornton, senior vice-president and general
manager at NeoPoint, said his company would compete
against the likes of Nokia in the category of smart
phones - handsets that combine the data functions of a
personal digital assistant with the voice capabilities of a
cellular phone.
"The creation of third-generation [3G] CDMA
networks by next year will mean very high increases in
voice capacity and faster data transmissions, which our
smart phones are capable of handling," Mr Thornton
said.
"With the expected growth in mobile e-commerce, we
expect to be No 1 in this segment, where we have the
most expertise."
NeoPoint's smart phone competes directly with Nokia's
GSM-based Communicator.
Another new player in the CDMA market is GTRAN,
one of the first companies to obtain a data modem
licence from Qualcomm.
Deepak Mehrotra, chief operating officer at GTRAN,
said: "We aim to provide a high-speed data solution for
wireless Internet access to the mobile computer user."
The company has secured its first production order of
200,000 units for its DotSurfer 64-kilobit-per-second
PC card modem from South Korean cellular operator
KT Freetel.
"For future 3G CDMA systems, our DotSurfer product
will offer wireless data transmission rates of up to two
megabits per second," Mr Mehrotra said.
DotSurfer is also being positioned for use with other
cellular standards, with an eye to penetrating the large
existing base of GSM networks and emerging CDMA
services in Asia. That will put GTRAN in direct
competition with Nokia, which offers a PC card modem
that delivers a comparatively lower transmission rate.
"We aim to make our mark in this region and then
expand in other parts of the world," Mr Mehrotra said.
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