9/4/02 WSJ -- "mobile stratem modem" and more ...
INTERVIEW : Qualcomm Eyes More Mobile-Chip Sales In Japan
By MICHELE YAMADA
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TOKYO -- Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) Wednesday said it hopes slow but
steady growth in Japan's high-speed mobile-data services will help it
control more than half of Japan's chip market for third-generation mobile
handsets in the next few years.
Qualcomm, the mobile-telecom technology company based in San Diego,
Calif., owns significant numbers of patents on Code Division Multiple
Access, or CDMA, a major wireless technology implemented in the U.S.
and other markets.
It also sells mobile-phone chips, called mobile stratem modem, or MSM,
and related system software.
Qualcomm expects to ship about 18 million to 19 million MSM chips in the
fourth quarter, with customers including companies that make handsets
and other mobile devices for telecom carriers such as Verizon
Communications (VZ), Sprint Corp. (FON), SK Telecom Co. (SKM) and
Japan's KDDI Corp. (J.KDD or 9433).
Qualcomm boasts "well-over 80%" of global market share of its chips
marketed to this group.
Those companies have already implemented, or are likely to use, CDMA
2000 1x, a high-speed wireless technology for their third-generation mobile
services, which allows users to exchange pictures, browse mini-movies
and download music on their handsets.
But Qualcomm executives say they're confident of also selling the
company's mobile-phone chips to companies that make mobile devices for
carriers that prefer another 3G wireless technology format, called
Wideband-CDMA, or W-CDMA.
"Our own feeling, so far, is that we're going to have a significant part of
the (W-CDMA) market," Qualcomm Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview
in Tokyo. "We'll be happy, with W-CDMA chips, if we can take more than half of that market in Japan."
In March 2001, Sanyo Electric Co. (SANYY or 6764) chose Qualcomm's MSM5200 mobile-phone chip for its
3G handset models. So far, Sanyo's handset with the chip has been used during the 3G trial service of J-Phone
Co., the mobile-phone unit of Japan Telecom Holdings Co. (J.JTC or 9434).
Qualcomm's ambition with the W-CDMA camp may bring more Japanese customers in the near future.
Industry sources said two Japanese handset manufacturers are considering using Qualcomm's W-CDMA
chipsets.
But Jacobs declined to comment on which, or how many, Japanese manufacturers have been testing its
products for possible selection.
In another area of 3G mobile technology, Qualcomm also hopes its proprietary Binary Runtime Environment
for Wireless, or BREW, will attract telecom operators regardless of their preferred 3G network technology
format.
BREW allows software developers to create portable applications, be it games, location positioning, movies or
live Internet radio. Users can download such applications from carrier networks directly over the air to their
handsets.
Qualcomm has more than 1.5 million BREW users, most of whom are KDDI's customers, Jacobs said, adding
that the platform can also be implemented for the W-CDMA network, and, albeit with slower downloading
speed, also for the older and slower General Packet Radio Service data network.
-By Michele Yamada, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2955; Michele.Yamada@dowjones.com
Updated September 4, 2002 8:50 a.m. EDT
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