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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (509)	7/9/2000 4:59:50 PM
From: William Hunt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197611

Dennis -after reading the link Ramsey had posted a while back:http://www.mobiledataevolution.com/ Can you tell the me the difference between MC W-CDMA and DS W-CDMA ? The MC version looks so much cost efficient from the IP protocol side and the upgrade of the existing system to MC W-CDMA . Why is GSM able to sell so many systems since they will have to be totally replace to go to DS W-CDMA ? I can see no advantage to the Koreans to choose the DS W-CDMA from NOK since they would still have to pay QCOM royalties . What am I missing ? BEST WISHES BILL

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (509)	7/9/2000 10:49:53 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 197611

Warning To WAP: Reinvent Or Waste Away By Paul Quigley LONDON—Is Wireless Application Protocol dead? According to analysts, unless WAP reinvents itself, it could be on its way out. Like the lure of the sirens in Homer’s Odyssey, wireless users have been entranced by a mobile simile of their desktop Internet ex-perience, only to crash onto the rocks of indifference. So what are WAP’s problems? Manifold, according to analysts, developers and users alike. Industry watchers are criticizing WAP-heads for overextending their product to the detriment of potential customers. Much of the blame in the United Kingdom, for example, is being laid squarely at the door of BTCellnet, for what critics say is a misleading national advertising campaign dubbed “Surf the Net– the BTCellnet.” CEO Peter Erskine boldly predicted that one-half million people would subscribe to BTCellnet’s mobile Internet services this year. This year to date they’ve managed a tenth of that: Just 50,000 have signed up. The WAP user interface also is causing problems for those who do commit. Adding new sites and configuring WAP phones isn’t a “click and go” no-brainer procedure. Handsets need to be carefully configured to work. And the more wireless and electronic devices people use, the more they tend to have to babysit them. So devices have to be as intuitive as possible to facilitate rather than to hamper. So-called “screen estate,” critical for the success of a wireless Internet service, is sorely lacking. Given the successful entrance of PalmPilot handhelds’ roomy screens and the thin film transistor color screens which are almost ubiquitous on notebook PCs and small digital cameras, end-users are immediately comparing such luxuries to the underwhelming size of current WAP phones that are based on minuscule quasi-graphic mono-liquid crystal displays. “The window of opportunity for WAP is closing,” says Ovum analyst Michele MacKenzie. “Users have been pre-sold on the concept without any reality checks, and have consequently misinterpreted WAP’s capabilities. There will be user backlash from the early launches.” It’s easy to see why users’ expectations in WAP are being dashed by the day, says Declan Lonergan, director of wireless research at the Yankee Group Europe. Even some developers are at the end of their tether. “I’ve given up on WAP development unless a client still insists that his site has a WAP interface,” says developer Gary Fenton. “WAP is so simple on paper, but so painful in practice for both developer and consumer.” But others are not so quick to herald WAP’s demise. “It is in no way a dead duck,” says developer John Walton. “More a dirty gray ugly duckling that will take a little while to turn into a beautiful white swan. It will take off again when [general packet radio services] comes online in a big way toward the end of the year,” he predicts. “But one thing it is not is the Internet on your mobile.” Recognizing the challenge, the industry already is fighting back on a somewhat lighter note. Munich-based manufacturer Siemens AG is staging a wacky WAP fest in Birmingham, England. Attempting to showcase just how capable WAP phones can be, Siemens is launching one of its new handsets in a “Four Strangers in a WAP-mobile” stunt where a quartet of volunteer youngsters agreed to live together in a car for 105 hours–with a daily 30 minute restroom break–to see who could stay inside the longest, armed only with a WAP mobile phone and $75. Whoever stays inside the car the longest wins it. The much-vaunted i-Mode cellular data experience in Japan is a roaring success–more than 15 million users and counting–with plans afoot by NTT DoCoMo to export all over the world. Although a close cousin to WAP, i-Mode has enough differences to make it compelling to that particular market. The Japanese have a great asset in that their language is very concise. “It takes far fewer characters to send standard text messages than in a western language like English,” says Gary Taylor, linguistics technology adviser at Bourne Research Ltd. i-Mode doesn’t need cumbersome development kits like WAP either, so sites can be created or replicated far faster. Yet research firms such as Merrill Lynch, the Yankee Group and Ovum believe WAP will be superseded sooner rather than later. But by what? Wireless portals. Yankee’s Lonergan concurs, believing that generic “walk-in” wireless portals are no good, but that slick short messaging services-based content could bridge the gap between the realities of today and the third-generation promise of tomorrow. Lonergan thinks what’s being missed is the ability to tailor users’ portals to the extent that it mirrors their desktop configuration so closely that the two are virtually identical. Research investment firm Merrill Lynch still predicts the number of wireless Internet users will soar from 9 million this year to 242 million within five years and will hit 311 million by 2010. They also forecast the European wireless data market will top $100 billion by 2010, but it will be driven by compelling portals rather than WAP. However, it is doubtful whether anyone will jettison investment dollars in wireless data just yet, whether it’s WAP, i-Mode or GPRS. And for end-users who still feel the allure of mobile Webbing, it’s the services–not the manner or method–that’s really important.