qveau, the reason I bring up this Bluetooth issue now and then is not to needle QCOM investors - I am one of them in a small scale but because when I think of true 3G, I don't see myself carry one device only. Voice would still be King or at least necessary to have at hand, comfortably. Maybe a good cordless headset connected to a small clever device (fountain pen size, battery capacity permitting) in a shirt pocket could do it. Minimal display, minimal tactile input, sort of the basic stuff you have to bring when you walk the dog. All the the different data applications however: streaming sound /video, location services with maps and GPS, radio & TV tuner, games, cameras, rich email -they all need a good display, hi-fi sound system, keyboard, processor capacity and a lot of specific memory, I would prefer to have that in a small PDA-or Nokia Communicator-like device - or maybe more than one. You bring it out when you sit at a table, or in an airport or on a train. It could also be part of the equipment in your car, to look at weather radars, listen to NPR or C-SPAN on demand on your way home from work. Bluetooth, if becoming popular, would be the gateway to all this - fast enough for most application especially if it had a big buffer for variation in cell capacity - but most importantly: technology agnostic. You bring the phone of your choice. Why have several contracts (unless they change their billing strategies) with phone companies just because you move from a phone, to a PDA to a laptop to a car?
Maybe someone will advocate wi-fi? Instead of Bluetooth? Fine, if you like to broadcast beyond 10 meters, trust eavesdroppers and if you have the battery power, by all means. I don't need it except in my home or my office. If the broadband source is already paid for.
And I buy my morning coffe in a drive thru. Latte.
So then the question again: what part of all this this would give revenues QCOM? The way I see it it's not an IPR issue but maybe it's covered by the license anyway - e.g we want 5% or a minimum of $20 per tranceiver, which ever is higher.
Or maybe my preference is not what people want - I certainly cannot understand the appeal of Nextels walkie-talkies, so I may be wrong...
Lars |
