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

To: kech who wrote (2420)	8/25/2000 11:43:25 AM
From: William Hunt	Respond to of 196543

Motorola challenges Nokia,Ericsson with 'net phone (UPDATE: adds details and share prices; changes dateline) By Paul de Bendern HELSINKI, Aug 25 (Reuters) - U.S. mobile phone to chips company Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news) said on Friday it planned to have its first Internet GPRS mobile phone on the market in the last quarter of this year, a few months earlier than its main rivals. ``I haven't got the exact roll-out plan but we're planning for that (Q4 launch),'' Jessica Frithiof, Motorola's product manager for Motorola wireless applications in the Nordic/Baltic region, told Reuters Television in Stockholm. GPRS (general packet radio services) networks, which are due for launch from year-end in the Nordics, will allow mobile phone users to access the Internet continuously and quickly, with significantly better quality services than WAP-enabled phones. The fight to be first on the market with a phone using the new technology is becoming increasingly crucial for manufacturers to keep a lead in this competitive industry. Nokia of Finland, the world's leading mobile phone maker, said it would have a GPRS phone available by mid-2001, which is considerably later than both Motorola Inc, the world's second biggest cellphone maker, and Sweden's Ericsson . ``What we have said is we foresee the mass volume market for GPRS to begin in first half of 2001 and in that time we will have our solution (phone) available in the market place,'' Nokia Mobile Phones spokesman Tapio Hedman told Reuters. Ericsson, whose troubled mobile phone division made losses in the first-half of the year due to an uncompetitive phone range and problems with production, said it would have its GPRS phone on the market in the first quarter of next year. ``In the first quarter it will be commercially available on the market,'' said Ericsson Mobile Phones spokeswoman Nina Eldh. GPRS LAUNCH TIME UNCLEAR Even if Motorola is the first to launch a GPRS phone -- it originally said in February it would launch the phone in Q2 2000 -- it will not mean much unless operators have installed GPRS networks and made available mobile services to users. ``Remember that Rome wasn't build in a day, it doesn't happen overnight. All new technology evolutions take place in gradual steps,'' Nokia's Hedman said. ``As has been with WAP, a whole business system has to be set up, including infrastructure, terminals and ensuring the interroperability of terminals and systems and services.'' But the market is unlikely to take off until suitable handsets are out there in sufficient numbers -- which industry analysts say will be at least the middle of 2001. Dresdner Kleinworth Benson analyst Per Lindberg did not expect GPRS to be a big market until 2002, when he expected some 20-30 million GPRS phones to be in the market globally. Being the first on the market with a new type of phone has proved to be key for companies, as was the case when Nokia was the first to launch a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) phone giving limited access to some Internet content. Lindberg agreed, saying rivals like Motorola, Siemens and Panasonic were getting faster in bringing out new phones. But analyst Gunnar Andersson at Handelsbanken said too much was at stake for both operators and mobile phone makers to take too long in bringing out GPRS. ``Operators need to have the system up and running to find new revenue channels, they need this, especially because of high costs they're paying for next generation systems,'' he said. Ericsson expects there to be some 1.4 billion mobile phone subscribers and one billion mobile Internet users worldwide in about five years' time. Currently there are around 570 million mobile phone users globally. Motorola shares were up 0.71 percent at $35-5/8 in New York. Ericsson was down 0.27 percent at 186.5 crowns in Stockholm and Nokia closed up 0.33 percent at 46.30 euros in Helsinki. BEST WISHES BILL