*Multimode complexity and cost* Irwin Jacobs who fought long and hard for harmonisation, said during the 3G CDG Web conference in response to a question that the additional costs to produce a multimode device are reasonable, though more than a fully harmonized standard. As qdog has constantly bemoaned, bloatware is the curse of bandwidth. It's also the curse of speed, efficiency, battery life, size, cost and happy customers.
I have long been a proponent of 'complexity' as a defence against competitors. But that complexity should be purposeful. Ericy's VW40 was designed primarily to provide a barrier to entry. To hell with customers. True enough, as you say, Q! is best placed to handle the complexity involved, and this will be advantageous to them relative to competitors. BUT, our aim is to make the most money and have the most happy customers. There is enough complexity already in the pipeline and there is no end in sight to how complex, sophisticated and multifunctional cdma2000 devices can get.
Q! can make more money by keeping the complexity increasing extremely fast, as they have been doing with ASICs for cdmaOne. Some people like the slogan, Keep It Simple Stupid, [KISS]. They should use the slogan Don't let a slogan do your thinking for you. Complexity in car design, brain design and cdma2000 devices is GOOD. Simplicity in operating the cars and cdma2000 devices is GOOD. A thing can be complex and simple to operate.
Brain bandwidth is the scarcity which has arrived on our desktops, not processing power, pipeline bandwidth or memory. George Gilder talks about 'the new scarce resource', well, that's it.
cdma2000 has to save brain bandwidth and do it super efficiently and at low cost. If Qualcomm goofs around with multimode 3G devices, that is contributing ZERO to saving brain bandwidth. It is a simple territorial battle in the same mode as Ericy with their absurd efforts to over years to stymie CDMA. Sure, Q! can win such a battle, but it is a useless battle in the grand scheme of things, though it gives Neanderthals a few more years before their demise. CDMA has been set back by the battle. Let's not be Neanderthals like Ericy and cheer at inefficient multimode.
It's better to have a single 3G standard and go hell for leather on developing the most advanced, complex and simple devices possible at the cheapest price, to make it easy for everyone to buy, which will maximize profits. A multimode standard will slow that process and not give Q! any advantage they don't already have.
Of course if there are REAL technical or functionality reasons to have various modes, that's another matter altogether. My comments are only aimed at difference for the sake of being different, which is a waste of effort and will reduce profits in the long run.
<In addition, I am thrilled by the multi-mode (direct-sequence and multi-carrier) compromise. CDMA IS VERY COMPLICATED and the multi-mode standard creates still further complexity. This complexity benefits an IPR-centric leader like Qualcomm, because its patent portfolio and technology experience give it a tremendous competitive advantage. Look at the trouble Nokia and Motorola have had stabilizing their 'run-of-the-mill' IS-95 chipset. It should thusly be obvious that the greater challenges inherent in a potential multi-mode chipset favor Qualcomm.>
Imagine how Nokia and all will feel when they see Q! racing out the MSM5500, MSM6000 and MSM10000, all blazingly fast and efficient and really cheap.
Come over to the light side!
Mqurice
PS: To elaborate a little further on VW40. There was a guy called Bill Frezza, to drag him out yet again to flog [let's hope Ramsey doesn't read that backwards or I've broken the no golf thread rule]. He was in the pay of Ericy [3 days a month consultancy and had been their director of marketing or some such] and accused Irwin Jacobs of fraud, CDMA as being a scam or at best an absurd dream designed to keep what he called The CDMA Mafia in business. So, we had the CDMA Mafia and GSM Nazis whose stock in trade was propaganda, lies, deception, dissembling, stonewalling and all that stuff that fools people. They denied CDMA would work. They claim to have invented it. They denied they were interested at all in cdmaOne. They bought the cdmaOne production plant and licences to produce it. Anyway, to shorten a very long story, the original Nazis, [notice the zzzs in Frezza, Nazi, Zenit] were proponents of the original VW Volkswagen.
Hence VW40, which worked in nicely with Vapourwear as in the King isn't wearing any clothes.
Isn't it ironic though that the original VW was a mass-produced single-mode, low-cost means of getting millions onto the highway. Now, half a century later, we are debating whether we should have a single mode people's transporter to take them onto the wireless information superhighway. I like the Henry Ford Model. Mass produced high quality single mode production. It can be any colour you like, as long as it's black. Okay, we could go with multi-hued casings and multi-tuned ringing. Multi-language keys. Multi-language voice control = goodbye keyboard. Stuff like that. But let's not have weirdo chip rates, synch, concatenations and orthogonality. |
