from data rox on raging bull - see thornley's comment on europe
Qualcomm sees upside to bullish 2003 forecast
Wednesday November 13, 11:33 am ET
By Lucas van Grinsven and Yukari Iwatani
AMSTERDAM/CHICAGO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc, the world's largest chip maker for mobile phones, said on Wednesday that its 2003 earnings forecast was based on a conservative estimate of 100 to 105 million CDMA standard phones sold next year.
"I think that (100-105 million CDMA handsets sold in 2003) is conservative, and I think we have good opportunity to exceed that," Chief Financial Officer Bill Keitel told a Qualcomm investor conference in London.
Some 85 million code division multiple access (CDMA) handsets are expected to be sold in 2002, on a total mobile phone market of some 400 million units.
Qualcomm, the world's largest producer of mobile phone chips, said last week it expects between 15 percent and 22 percent higher sales in its fiscal first quarter, ending in December, compared with its fourth quarter.
It forecast full-year fiscal 2003 sales, which ends in September, to rise by between 19 and 23 percent.
Its 2003 forecast was widely seen as bullish and analysts thought it would be hard to realise.
Qualcomm shares rose 0.9 percent at $34.78, slightly outperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NasdaqSC:^IXIC - News) index which rose 0.7 percent.
Qualcomm owns most of the patents on CDMA, which is the smaller rival of global system for mobile communications (GSM), the network technology used by around 70 percent of all mobile phone users in the world. Qualcomm's chip division, which contributed around 45 percent of revenues in the last quarter, expects to grow revenues by 25 percent, even faster than the company's total sales.
QUALCOMM IN EUROPE
The reason for the chip unit's outperformance is that it not only targets its core market of CDMA subscribers, mainly in the Americas and parts of Asia, but that it is now also expanding into traditional GSM-only markets like Western Europe.
Qualcomm's latest phone chipsets can handle access to both GSM and CDMA networks. In addition Qualcomm is making chips which also integrate access to the soon-to-be-launched successor to the second-generation GSM networks, so-called wideband-CDMA.
"We're pretty optimistic our chipsets will take significant share of this (European) market," said Chief Operating Officer Anthony Thornley.
Qualcomm's main wireless chip rivals are U.S.-based Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN - News) and Franco-Italian STmicroelectronics (Paris:STM.PA - News). Both have guided for sales increases below Qualcomm's expectations.
Chip makers are in general bullish on their wireless chip revenues despite the virtually flat mobile phone market, because mobile phones are rapidly becoming more powerful.
This power needs to come from more expensive chips that can access different networks, that are faster, which have more memory, and sport new features like FM radio and games.
A typical chip for mobile data and voice GSM phones currently on the market is more than twice as expensive as a simple GSM voice chip, according to Texas Instruments
biz.yahoo.com
Email this story - Set a News Alert
• $5 online trades for savvy investors! Go!
• Determine the directional move of any stock!!
• Stockback MasterCard - Earn up to 11% back on purchases
REACT TO THIS MEMBER
• Add to favorite members (formerly membermark)
• Ignore/Hide this poster in all boards
• Report TOS violation
Reply to msg. Post new msg. Email this msg.
« Message list Add to favorite boards
Msg. #
« Previous | Next »
Search the Boards
These features have moved.
• To move to a different board, use the main search tool at the top of all Lycos Finance pages.
• To find a member, use the Msg board homepage.
Join Harrisdirect
My Favorite Boards
Board name New
You have not yet added any favorite boards.
- - - - -
Add/Remove Boards »
» Lycos Worldwide © Copyright 2002, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Lycos® is a registered trademark of Carnegie Mellon University.
About Terra Lycos | Help | Jobs | Advertise | Business Development
Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of the Lycos Privacy Policy [Updated] and Terms & Conditions
Go Canada. Click Here: www.sympatico.ca |
