Qualcomm Japan Sees Technology,KDDI Boosting 2001 Sales
By ROBERT A. GUTH
December 19, 2000
TOKYO -- Qualcomm Japan Inc. expects that a combination of new cellular phone functions and better overall performance by its main customer will help boost its sales in 2001, the company's president said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
Qualcomm Japan President Ted Matsumoto said that, despite difficulties at DDI Corp. (J.DDI) this past year, he expects the Qualcomm customer is poised for growth next year. DDI, Japan's third largest cellular service provider and better known as KDDI, has had difficulty holding its own against market leader NTT DoCoMo Inc. (J.NTX)
"I think they hit the bottom so it's now that KDDI will pick up," Mr. Matsumoto said. "If KDDI picks up it will have an immediate effect on our profits," he said. "We have strong hope for next year."
KDDI recently readied itself for competition by improving its mobile Internet service and rolling out more handsets with color screens, he noted.
San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) licenses cellular telephone technology to handset makers and service providers.
The company commercialized a technology called Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, which is behind cellular services in the U.S., Japan and Korea, Qualcomm's largest market. The company's derives most of its revenues from licensing technology.
Qualcomm Japan is a wholly owned unit of Qualcomm. It handles sales and service of its parent's CDMA technology. Mr. Matsumoto declined to estimate Qualcomm Japan's revenue next year.
Karaoke Telephones
Mr. Matsumoto said that next year Qualcomm Japan should also benefit from the roll-out of Wideband-CDMA, a technology that will bring high-speed Internet access to handsets. Qualcomm charges licensing fees for certain parts of W-CDMA.
DoCoMo will be the first to use the technology, expected to debut in Europe in 2002.
The company's immediate future rests on the health of KDDI, formed this past year through the merger of three Japanese telecommunications companies. In addition to ironing out merger problems, KDDI will be better prepared for battle because it will soon have technology from Qualcomm that will make its handsets more competitive, Mr. Matsumoto said.
Specifically, Mr. Matsumoto mentioned two new technologies it will ship to KDDI this year: one enables phone subscribers to enjoy karaoke over their phones; another uses the global positioning system to help users find restaurants and other destinations.
In the latter half of next year, KDDI is expected to roll out Qualcomm technology that will give its phones Net access of 144 kilobits per second - about twice the speed of current phones. |
