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To: Road Walker who wrote (17781)12/29/2000 9:51:34 AM
From: jkb  Respond to of 60323
 
john; in response to the question of how often people use their cell phone to access the net. i am a user of a samsung/sprint pcs combination; and i too use the net several times a day from the phone. it's quite handy for checking stocks while driving, full movie updates and showtimes while at a restaurant, email updates from yahoo, weather, etc. i at this point don't see the major application value in 3G wireless; which is where storage, perhaps SNDK storage, would become a big play.



To: Road Walker who wrote (17781)12/29/2000 1:03:19 PM
From: JMD  Respond to of 60323
 
John, "Is the Qualcomm thread the best SI thread to follow for discussion of handset trends?" Not really--QCOM is completely out of the handset business (sold it to Kyocera earlier this year). Qualcomm's CEO, Irwin Jacobs, is only interested in the technology inside the handset and is happy to let the Europeans (Nokia) slug it out with the Koreans (Samsung) and a rising tide from Japan, China, and god knows who will be next. Dr. J just wants to win the standards battle (CDMA) and own all the IPR associated therewith. He doesn't want to be Dell; he aims to be Intel.
Historically, Nokia has usually been considered the best of the handset makers (newest fashions, brightest colors, cutest buttons, etc.). Motorola carried the torch for a while and still has a strong brand name, but most folks now feel that the best of breed is coming from Japan--Sanyo's latest releases are dazzling for example. Personally, I don't like the economics of the handset business: the phones are low profit items at best. The carriers' goal is to not lose too much on each unit, and then make money by driving traffic on their networks. The phones, after all, are just plastic--the ASICs are what make the magic happen. Just my opinion of course, but my bet is that the value add is in the guts, not the skeleton. mike doyle