To: tero kuittinen who wrote (3098 ) 12/23/1999 6:02:00 PM From: Maurice Winn Respond to of 34857
Speaking of old grudges, did you see that Bill Frezza said that data isn't going to be big any time soon? Caxton said <it may not be in noks best financial interest to push hdr, too busy selling gsm. But they better not lose to much ground to the cmda handset makers, because what happened to Mot, could happen to Nok >. While it's tempting to think 'don't push HDR or we'll queer our GSM pitch', that would be a BIG mistake. Nokia should remember that every HDR appliance they sell they get 100% of the profit and reduce their competitors' advantage. Every one they don't sell will be a GSM replacement anyway, so they might as well be the one to sell it. Nokia can't slow HDR, so they better be in. The W-CDMA/HDR/cdma2000 battlefront is going to be a very interesting one to watch. There are some VERY big stakes in the ground. NTT hoping for a 2001 launch of their W-CDMA network. Kyocera, that 7th rate little nobody [in your view anyway], is now positioned to do a lot in a short time. Kyocera has handset plants in China and can clone their acquisition easily enough. Nokia missed out on this, not because they didn't want it but because they couldn't afford it [okay, the price was too high for what they thought they'd get out of it]. You say the big companies didn't want the handset division - but that's not true. They did want it, but didn't like the price. Kyocera saw the value and Q! saw the value in what Kyocera could do. Now, Nokia has to make W-CDMA fly. Since they have had trouble making rotten little 13kbps cdmaOne fly, it will be interesting to see them make 2 mbps with images fly. Assuming Nokia is not the little engine which could, they can always buy Q! ASICs, plug them in and start using the mighty Nokia marketing network and brand image, so Nokia still has a way to be very, very big time in the CDMA world of the early 21st century. Meanwhile, Bill Frezza seems to have set himself up for another failure as HDR and CDMA data in general start pouring off the production lines, creating WWeb in Japan, Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and all those other countries which need only plug in some new boards to enjoy high performance WWeb at sensible prices. Maybe even in Europe. The Kyocera deal looks pretty good to this Q! shareholder who now hopes that Nokia quickly becomes an ASIC customer for HDR and doesn't waste too much time trying to make that W-CDMA [W40] negotiating head-fake a success. Surely they were never serious and NTT, SK Telecom, Nokia, Ericsson and the rest of the gang were just using VW40 as a lever to try to fluster Mighty Q! into thinking it might not go all their way. It also served to flummox GSM operators, some of whom are only now turning on brand new networks [OneTel for example] - suckers. I suppose they can spin out the VW40 silliness for perhaps one more year before they can it and start ordering the real oil from Qualcomm, Lucent, Kyocera and associates. Merry Xmas Tero! Be careful with the points on your reindeer antler hat during the next month or two of long, cold, dark winter nights. Let's hope Nokia doesn't stay in the GSM winter too long. I'm creepily addicted to a rapidly rising share price as I'm sure the Nokia shareholders are too. When Nokia sees the light, casts aside the demon GSM goosestep with the wondrous WWeb Freedom Technology from Mighty Q! the Nokian shareholders will get another wondrous lift to their share price. Mqurice PS: Okay, GSM has been good to Nokia, but it's time to move on. Meanwhile, Nokia has done a brilliant job for over a decade. It really has been a spectacular achievement. Their failure on CDMA has been substantial, thought it's not the end of the world yet for them. But they'll have to get their skates on! It's time to stop goofing around, buy some Qualcomm ASICs, commit to HDR as soon as it's ready and start pressing for a 2001 rollout in Europe. By the way, do you still think CDMA will totally fail or be some weird niche product in some enclaves in the USA and state-enforced Korea?