Qualcomm CEO On CNNfn>
ualcomm CEO, CNNfn
FDCH CEO Wire/Associated Press
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS
COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM
AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEVE YOUNG, CNNfn ANCHOR,
DIGITAL JAM: What a quarter for Qualcomm
(Company: [ Qualcomm Incorporated ] ; Ticker:
QCOM; URL: http:www.qualcomm.com/). It
reported record revenues of $941 million, a 20
percent increase. Profits at the telecom equipment maker rose 32 percent to
$49 million, or 65 cents a share. That's 3 cents over Wall Street estimates.
Joining me from San Diego is Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm's chairman
(20:07:10) & chief executive and repeat visitor to DIGITAL JAM. Thanks
for coming back.
IRWIN JACOBS, CHAIRMAN & CEO, QUALCOMM: Pleasure to be
here.
YOUNG: Well, it must be a pleasure to mull over these numbers. To what
do you owe them?
JACOBS: Well, I think the whole (20:07:20) wireless industry is going
ahead very, very well. And CDMA itself is growing rapidly. And so we just
have to be making sure that we our part of that.
YOUNG: [ Motorola ] (Company: Motorola Incorporated; Ticker: MOT;
URL: mot.com has sort of bounced (20:07:30) back from
some depressed times. But we had been hearing until recently that Nokia
(Company: [ Nokia Corporation ] ; Ticker: NOK/A; URL:
nokia.com was very strong - stronger that Ericsson AB
(Company: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson; Ticker: ERICY; URL:
ericsson.com, stronger than Motorola. What's happening with
your share in your product line?
JACOBS: Well, we're (20:07:40) doing very well on the, that refers to the
telephone side of our business. We're maintaining, I believe our share, quite
well on CDMA despite the fact that there are additional competitors coming
(20:07:50) in. I think the main issue here though is that the market is growing
and so that there is room for additional manufacturers, additional
competitors, additional models. I think it's all going (20:08:00) to help the
industry continue to grow well.
YOUNG: We were talking about advanced models that will be doing all
kinds of technological tricks by 2001, 2002. Are those going to be
(20:08:10) much more expensive than present equipment?
JACOBS: Well, we're introducing a model that does some very nice tricks
in the next quarter. And that's what we call our PDQ which includes a
(20:08:20) Palm Pilot as well as an integrated CDMA telephone. And it will
allow the usual Palm Pilot capabilities. But also Web browsing. It will allow
you to get your synchronization occurring while you're on the air. A number
of interesting (20:08:30) capabilities there.
YOUNG: Your friends at Motorola some months back said that your phone
looked too much like this phone, their StarTACT. What's happened to that
suit?
JACOBS: Well, there was a ruling on that, that was (20:08:40) in our favor
initially. It will go to trial in another few months. I think that issue probably is
not very critical at this stage.
YOUNG: Does it, simply because of the movement of (20:08:50) the
JACOBS: Right. And also we've been advertising our phone very carefully
as the pdQT. There's no question, I think, that anybody is mistaking that for
a Motorola StarTACT . And we had our phone (20:09:00) out there first.
YOUNG: Let's talk about this standards war in Europe - the EC is pointing
the finger at the United States. The U.S. is pointing the finger back. Where
do you come down?
JACOBS: Well, we're right in the (20:09:10) middle of that one, of course.
The EC was saying that, for example, the U.S. is lagging. In fact, it's the
U.S. that standardized CDMA first as the number of operating companies
providing CDMA service. And now, in Europe, they wish to also (20:09:20)
go to use CDMA in their next generation. What they're doing is trying to
have a slightly different set of parameters to the CDMA so it won't be
compatible. And we're arguing (20:09:30) with that, that there should be one
compatible standard worldwide. And so there's a tugging going on.
YOUNG: You say the U.S. standardized on CDMA first. I - maybe I'm
mistaken - I thought that some jumped on time division (20:09:40) multiple
access first.
JACOBS: Oh. Well, the first standard here in the U.S., of course, was
analog. And then a TDMA standard. And then CDMA. But comparing it
with Europe, we have a CDMA standard, have had that now for several
years. And it (20:09:50) doesn't-Europe doesn't have one yet.
YOUNG: Is this new standard to start happening around 2002? A variation
on CDMA who's apalachia I just saw recently - WDMA?
JACOBS: Well, they call it, "WCDMA." It is CDMA. It uses a wider
bandwidth. We also are proposing (20:10:00) with other companies
worldwide a wider bandwidth version also to handle those multimedia tasks
that you mentioned earlier. And so there are two versions, both using
CDMA, very similar, but with (20:10:10) detailed differences. It seems
somewhat silly to be introducing a new standard at this point or two new
standards that are almost the same but not quite. So again we're (20:10:20)
pressing very hard to converge those standards.
YOUNG: What about the consolidation going on in the service business, the
$110 billion Vodafone (Company: Vodafone Group Plc; Ticker: VOD;
URL: vodafone.co.uk - AirTouch (Company: [ AirTouch
Communications Inc. ] ; Ticker: ATI; URL: airtouch.com deal,
for example. Does that impact you?
JACOBS: Well, obviously, well, AirTouch is a very, very good customer of
ours. We have (20:10:30) done various businesses with Vodafone. They are
a strategic partner in our GlobalStar venture. So we're very close to them.
But I think what this shows is that there is an increasing growth in (20:10:40)
the whole wireless industry. And that the transition from wired telephones to
wireless telephones is accelerating. That these larger combines are able to
provide very broad services at very cost-effective (20:10:50) prices. And I
think that's just going to further excite consumers.
YOUNG: Nicholas Nigraponte (ph) of MIT talks about, what he calls, the,
modestly, the "Nigraponte Switch": that everything wireless will go wired
and vice versa. Do you buy into that, that most of (20:11:00) us will spend
most of our phone time wireless?
JACOBS: Oh, I think it's going to be unusual to see somebody with a wired
phone after we go out a (20:11:10) few years from now. There will be a
curiosity, I suspect. We all like to be mobile. And then that mobile phone
actually, because of its increased computing power, will also to a large
extent, satisfy our (20:11:20) needs for personal computing.
YOUNG: OK. And finally in the 20, 30 seconds we have left, there are
some investors who wonder out there about the volatility in your stock.
Your message to them is (20:11:30) . what?
JACOBS: Well, we're obviously working very hard to continue to bring
profits to the bottom line, to increase our revenues, to develop new
products. The whole CDMA and wireless industry is growing. We're part of
(20:11:40) that. We're hoping to try to have a more predictable trend.
YOUNG: OK. Here's to predictability, Irwin.
JACOBS: Thank you.
YOUNG: Thanks for joining us again on DIGITAL JAM.
JACOBS: It's been great.
END |
