*Who'll buy the MSM3100?* Tero, you said: "...Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson and Sony are not going to buy one single chipset from Qualcomm for their future Chinese CDMA models. That's what you get when you try to compete with your customers - the mistake Intel never made."
Motorola, Samsung and the 30 subscriber handset licensees will buy the best chip available at the right price for their purpose, whether or not that chip supplier also produces handsets.
But some will prefer to make their own ASICs, so that they have full design control and the ability to add features, performance and product differentiation. That will be an expensive strategy requiring a highly competitive ASIC team so it will be used with discretion by the large companies such as Nokia and Motorola. Ericy might become best buddy of Q! and stick with Q! chips.
Q! is producing 90% of the ASICs. Any more than that would suggest they are undercharging, leaving too much on the table so that others don't bother with competing. Any less would suggest they are overcharging, providing too much incentive for people to escape the expensive ASICs and develop effective, cheaper solutions.
Since they had 100% not too long ago, it is appropriate that Q! market share in ASICs drops. Maybe it will go down to 50%. If competitors are really good, maybe it will go to zero. That's the fun of it all. The Q! ASIC designers and producers will be keen to keep their market share and profits high, because they won't want their suddenly very happy looking stock options to turn to muck.
Anyway, why do you think the Chinese handsets will be something special as far as the ASIC is concerned?
Maurice
[Looks as though the Q! people have abandoned ship and arrived here and the Gilder thread!] |
