QCOM--Cellular-Phone Technology Will Help
Boost Qualcomm Japan's Sales in 2001
By Robert A. Guth
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
TOKYO -- Qualcomm Japan Inc. expects that a combination of new cellular-phone functions and better overall performance of its main customer will help boost its sales in 2001, the company's president said.
Ted Matsumoto also said that despite difficulties at DDI Corp. this past year, he expects that 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.
"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 has recently readied itself for competition by improving its mobile Internet service and rolling out more handsets with color screens, he noted.
San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. 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 derives most of its revenue from licensing technology.
Qualcomm Japan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm. It handles sales and service of its parent's CDMA technology. He declined to estimate Qualcomm Japan's revenue next year.
Mr. Matsumoto said that next year Qualcomm Japan should also benefit from the roll-out of so-called third-generation technology, which will bring high-speed Internet access to handsets. Qualcomm charges licensing fees for certain parts of the third-generation technology.
The company's immediate future will rest on the health of KDDI, which was formed this past year through the merger of three Japanese telecommunications companies.
In addition to having ironed out problems related to the merger, KDDI will be more prepared to do battle in the coming year because it will soon have technology from Qualcomm that could make its handsets more competitive, Mr. Matsumoto said. Specifically, he mentioned two new technologies it will ship to KDDI this year. One enables phone subscribers to do karaoke over their phones and 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 Internet access of 144 kilobits per second, or about two times the speed of current phones. |
