Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Nokia (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (14815)	9/3/2001 7:59:41 PM
From: S100	Respond to of 34857

Interesting to watch Nokia these days. It is becoming apparent that they are very good at manufacturing and exploiting the fashion styles or fads. They seem to have a lot of trouble with engineering, as shown by the problems they have had with CDMA. Several years ago they hired Qualcomm to help them fix some CDMA problems. I have seen only two Nokia phones approved by the FCC in the last few months, both TDMA. Every week there are one or two CDMA phones approved that are made by Korean and Japanese companies and now the first one that was made in China. Perhaps the US market is rather small and not worth bothering with for Nokia. Nokia has some plants in China, are they locked out of the Chinese market for CDMA phones, since it seems that only Chinese companies were approved? While it will not be like in the last 1940s when all foreign companies were thrown out and their property seized, perhaps something very interesting may happen. Nokia is sending some of their R and D to outside companies; the deal with ICD a few years ago should have been a warning. Why can Motorola and Ericsson make working GPRS phones when Nokia seems to have so many problems? GPRS was supposed to be a relatively simple modification, add a special router to the base stations, lots of software and new phones. Then the EDGE modification and more new phones. Then WCDMA of their own design which may be more than a snip snap new channel card to their base stations. Why are they providing a bonus by offering 150 per cent vendor financing for the base stations. There may be a big demand for people that understand the adjustments required to make a CDMA base station work. That is, if WCDMA ever gets out of the lab. Also, I see that suddenly almost every wireless service provider in this area (SoCal) is offering very good deals, long distance included, lots of minutes, reasonable costs. Does this mean that the infrastructure is now built up and there is lots of capacity or is the bottom about to fall out of the wireless market? In this area a wired phone costs $25 per month just to sit there unused. Wireless costs $38 per month but includes caller ID and some other features plus a fair amount of long distance minutes. I dropped one phone line when a cable modem was available here, am now ready to drop one more wired line. The two CDMA service providers both have very good voice quality, ATT seems to have very poor quality and it is very apparent when I get a call via ATT. Almost impossible to identify the caller by the voice since the quality is so bad. Why sign up more users if they are losing money on each one? Doesn't it take a while to recover the phone subsidy? Many phones are free or near free with the current deals. The new users may not be a big user of extra minutes, in fact it may be hard to use the included minutes.

To: slacker711 who wrote (14815)	9/3/2001 8:45:04 PM
From: S100	Respond to of 34857

Carphone dampens Christmas hopes CELLPHONE retailer Carphone Warehouse has poured cold water on the wireless industry's hopes that faster internet handsets will fuel a market recovery this Christmas. Jonathan Hook, UK sales and marketing director, said he did not expect sales of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) handsets offering faster, always-on access to the internet, to take off until the second quarter of next year. 'I don't think this Christmas will be a GPRS Christmas,' he said. Mobile phone makers have been hoping GPRS will help revive the market. But delays in launching handsets and consumer indifference have dampened expectations that the service will take off soon. Hook said the design of current handsets did not appeal to their target market. So far only two GPRS handsets are widely available - from Motorola and Ericsson - and a Siemens phone is just reaching the shops. Market leader Nokia, the preferred brand of the big youth market, has yet to launch a GPRS model. Hook said he 'hoped' it would be out before Christmas. The lack of services taking advantage of GPRS's increased bandwidth was another restraint, Hook said. Currently the phones do little more than provide slightly quicker access to Wireless Application Protocol web sites. 'There isn't actually a awful lot to do on GPRS,' Hook said. He was nevertheless confident of good overall Christmas sales, driven by demand for phones with better text messaging functions and interchangeable fascias, although sales were unlikely to beat last Christmas's record. 'We're expecting it to be a good Christmas,' Hook added. 'I don't think it will be a record Christmas.' thisislondon.co.uk PHILIPS UNVEILS THE FISIO 318 GPRS MOBILE PHONE (Ybreo Newswire)- At IFA, Philips unveils its new GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) mobile phone, the FISIO 318, which provides Internet access and data communications up to four times faster than conventional wireless communications. The new FISIO 318 is designed for mobile phone users who want the same fast, convenient Internet access they’re used to at home, At the same time, GPRS technology helps save them money on data communication costs. Although their data connection is ‘always on’, they are only charged for the actual amount of data they transfer. Other features of the FISIO 318 include the following: Compact, easy-to-handle format, with a premium, performance-oriented look. Large graphic display combined with an easy-to-use carousel interface. Instead of a scrolling text menu, the carousel integrates visual icons to express various phone functions. Voice dial/voice command function with up to 15 voice dial numbers. This allows users to make a call simply by saying a person’s name or to select a function, such as Internet access, by simply saying “Internet access.” 4.5 hours of talk time, and 400 hours (nearly 2.5 weeks of normal operation) of standby time. Selection of local and downloadable games. T9 function, which helps users quickly and easily create SMS (Short Message Service) messages by recognizing common words and offering a choice of pre-defined messages. ‘Emotion icons,’ which users can add to SMS messages for an extra visual dimension. 5 ‘emotion ringers’ and 30 ringer melodies which users can download from the Philips website to personalize their phones. Users can also create welcome messages and choose from 5 welcome icons to further personalize their phones. The Philips FISIO 318 is the most advanced model in the Philips FISIO phone range, and will be on the market as of October 2001. The FISIO phone range also includes the FISIO 311, which offers on-the-move Internet access using WAP technology, along with many of the same easy-to-use features as the FISIO 318. ybreo.com