Amazing how one Boogey Man always replaces the previous...
One of the most important things to remember IMO is that we're dealing with an EXPLODING MKTPLACE. Take China as an example.Japan, Brazil, Mexico, need I say more?
This question of whether Q can be the Intel of CDMA is an interesting one but it'll be a long time before we find out and in all liklihood it cannot. Intel dominates at least as much because of manufacturing prowess as anything else. Nobody else can build chip factories on the same scale, as efficiently, spread all over the globe. They've perfected their formula, they have incredible gross margins. Obviously we're a long way from that.
QCOM has created tremendous opportunity for itself out of thin air, an accomplishment that should give shareholders some confidence that they'll be able to navigate the perrenially treacherous waters with some fanfare. Q has some built in advantages, the most obvious being royalties, next the fact that they control what licensees are allowed to do with their technology. Notice they haven't licensed INTEL or IBM to make ASICs on their own, and MOT, NOKIA etc cannot resell ASICS. Tero studiously avoided to mention those 20 some OEMs who are buying Q chips which represent Q's "virtual" manufacturing operation, who do their own R&D and have their own relationships with operators and distributors. These types of value chains are not so easily replaced, especially when one takes into consideration Q's central CDMA position. The thing we can be sure of though is that because of the size of the mkt it's gonna be a very hotly contested space. |
