Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting

QCOM 164.53

-0.4%

Jan 14 3:59 PM EST

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: BDAZZ who wrote (62641)	4/14/2007 1:18:14 AM
From: Rick	Read Replies (2) of 197217

An oldie but goodie, coming in at number 9 on this thread. From 09/16/1996: Jacobs's Patter: An Inventor's Promise Has Companies Taking Big Cellular Gamble --- Qualcomm Boss's Innovation In Digital-Phone System Is Problematic -- and Late --- Are Claims Hope or Hype? ---- By Quentin Hardy Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal "....CDMA is the long-term solution for the cellular industry," says Dr. Jacobs, whose personal fortune as Qualcomm's biggest shareholder has grown to an estimated $150 million with the rise of the company. A lot rides on whether Dr. Jacobs is right. His dazzling promises for CDMA -- coming from a famed scientist who won a National Medal of Technology from President Clinton in 1994 --steered many companies away from an already-established global standard widespread in Europe and Asia. Yet CDMA is more than three years late in coming to market, and it isn't clear it works any better than the existing standard. Dr. Jacobs is blamed by some experts for single-handedly putting the U.S. far behind in the global wireless-communications business, which analysts expect to be a $100 billion market within five years. There is also a worst-case possibility: that CDMA doesn't work on the massive scale required, an outcome that would inflict billions of dollars of losses on the equipment makers and network operators that have bought into Dr. Jacobs's promises. That would cause more delays in the spread of digital-wireless phones in the U.S.; there are 16 million digital phones in Europe, compared with about 1.5 million in the U.S. "They've got fundamental technical problems that they don't know how to solve," says Don Cox, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. "There is no one in the business smarter than Irwin Jacobs, but smart guys make mistakes too." George Schmitt, president of Omnipoint Communications Inc. of Mountain Lakes, N.J., and a former chief executive of wireless giant PrimeCo Personal Communicatios LP of Westlake, Texas, says Dr. Jacobs "sold the market a lot more than he delivered." - Rick

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next