Nokia is playing a very dangerous game - extending GSM and holding W-CDMA back as long as possible with endless dickering in stupid bureauratic standards jamborees while refraining from getting a licence from Q! and hoping that they get their switcheroo timing just right. So far, so good. They better keep their fingers crossed.
Maurice, I'm curious: what have you seen Nokia do, as of yet, that makes it seem that they're trying to delay the rollout of W-CDMA? And more importantly, what is it that makes you think Nokia doesn't want W-CDMA to be deployed any time soon?
Is it the prospect of getting paid on those nine and ten-digit 3G infrastructure contracts from the likes of Sonera and Telecom Italia? Is it the potential for data-centric 3G handsets to allow for far greater degrees of personalization when compared to today's phones? (We all know how weak Nokia is in this field.) Or is it the far higher ASPs and margins that W-CDMA/GPRS/GSM quad and quint-modes, packed with data and multimedia-related features, will inevitably bring to the table?
Seriously, I'm interested.
Eric
PS - The royalty payments are a moot point, as everyone else has to make them as well, and thus the costs will be passed down to the consumer; and the fact that a licensing agreement with Qualcomm hasn't yet been signed doesn't mean anything, considering that Nokia still has a few months to spare, and that this is, to say the least, a high-stakes game of poker being played. |
