Michael, thank you so much for that. What a great interview. Reading stuff like that reinforces the confidence I have always had in Irwin Jacobs and the crew. It summarizes the arguments and positions and lays out the irrefutable case for an early adoption of cdma2000 by anyone who wants to participate in the wireless world.
If Ericsson and co delay, they will lose out anyway, with cdmaOne handling nearly everything that matters and cdma2000 trundling out via Lucent, Qualcomm and others.
On royalties, I really have some difficulty with the idea that cdma2000 royalties should be lower than cdmaOne.
For a start, it is unfair on those who had the good judgement to sign with Qualcomm earlier. Their competitive position will be compromised if they want to stick with cdmaOne, but competitors come in with cdma2000 with greater functionality and lower royalty rates. Secondly, you buy brainpower and brainpower costs more. cdma2000 involves more brainpower = all the cdmaOne stuff, plus a lot more besides. Why sell it cheaper?
cdma2000 is obviously going to be the standard, so there is no need to give it away. As Irwin says, the cost of the gizzards is coming down monthly by more than the cost of the IPR. 30% royalty rate would mean it would take longer to get to less well off people so excess charges would be counterproductive. But 10% seems cheap enough.
The old moan by some Korean companies that IPR charges were slowing cdmaOne development is obviously untrue [to any significant extent].
Isn't it interesting that there was never a victory celebration of cdmaOne over GSM - just a gradual slide to an acknowledgement of superiority. And at the same time that Irwin says all this and Europeans [and the odd Nippon, Korean and other IPR bandit] have nowhere to turn, the Q.com share price is sitting tamely rising.
There will be a sudden wake up. P:E 33 is cheap. Results out soon. I still say a wake up this month with a shock revaluation of Qualcomm's prospects after results come out.
Mqurice
Three cheers for Mr Jacobs! Holder of a Congressional Medal of Honor for Technology [or whatever it was]. |
