They had one for sale at the local Sprint store. I can't remember the manufacturer or price, but was definitely mp3, and came with snazzy headphones.
It'll take time..I was downloading mp3s way before my novice computer friends were. Now when we're sitting around in my room drinking some beer or playing Bond on the N64, someone is usually downloading a song over Napster (before they shut them down). People who probably couldn't even use a search engine, were using Napster and downloading songs. This feature will take off, once most phones come with mp3 support. When it becomes a basic feature. There will be the problem of hooking the cell phone into the car stereo system, but I'm sure someone will find an easy way to do that.
the GSM sub base in China has hit 130 million. the middle class of China is around 200 million. Unicom's decision to launch a CDMA network at this point is likely to end in a disaster imo. there is zero evidence of CDMA demand in China and plenty of evidence of the market failure of CDMA competition against GSM - coming from Hong Kong.
Umm...i think your are spinning the facts to support your own biased view. I deal with that problem, but there is probably more than meets the eye as to what's happening between CDMA and GSM.
What happens when a few killer apps develop that require data? Things could change. You'd think carriers would use CDMA since it's the future right? Well, most people look at the past. Wireless carriers are more interested in the current cash cow which is voice. When it comes to voice, GSM has certain advantages that carriers seem to like (ie economies of scale I guess) The past doesn't predict the future, but is simply just a useful guide. When it comes to data, CDMA rules and I think some carriers don't realize this.
to argue that India, Latin America and China are major drivers for CDMA sales goes directly against everything we have learned about these markets during the past 12 months. India, Russia and Latin America are unmitigated disasters for the CDMA block - the loss of the 80 million sub TDMA block to GSM was a devastating blow to the global growth prospects of second-generation CDMA. as a result, CDMA's share of global subs is in steady decline right now and has been for the past 18 months or so.
Hmmm...i sense a hate for Qualcomm which makes you no different than the Q cheerleaders. I own shares, so i'm sure that effects my opinion. However, I'm thinking of selling if it hits my buy price. May re-buy if it hits the 40s again.
You call it a blow that Qualcomm wasn't able to convert all of China, Russia and LA to CDMA and not GSM? I don't think we ever expected Qualcomm to pull that off.
how many people on this thread have even publicly acknowledged the decline of CDMA market share globally? it happens to have major implications on economies of scale concerning both network and phone equipment.
I wasn't aware of a major decline if there was one. But is this suppose to be evidence that Qualcomm is a failure? Over the past 5 years, CDMA has been one of the fastest growing technologies. Not a failure in my view. We can sit here all day and spin the facts to our own liking. Korea put a ban of subsidies which didn't help things. If 1x in the US and Japan is anything like Korea, then Qualcomm should be all right for next year. I think BREW and new data applications will drive cell phone demand. It started snowing in Norman, Oklahoma where I go to school. My mom wanted a picture of the snow, but I don't own a camera and I'm not about to buy a throw-away to just take one picture. If I had a Nokia 7650, I could have easily seen my self taking a few snap shots and sending them to her email account. I'm still skeptical how Americans will use video conferencing when it becomes widely available on our cell phones. At times, I don't want to see the other person and just hear them. Still, who predicted the huge demand in the internet, email, and IM in 1990? Surely not Bill Gates. He was pumping CDs as the preferable way to share information.
the depth of denial has reached the stage where people are actually taking the most important factual arguments against CDMA (India, Latin America and China) and are attempting to use them to argue in favor of Qualcomm.
this is like trying to argue that communism was a success by pointing to North Korea.
Nice try, but do you not realize that all this is a moot point anyhow. Any flavor of CDMA is money in the bank for Qualcomm. WCDMA, CDMA2000, SD-CDMA, ect..
So i guess communism will take over..
It was absolutely a huge loss....but most of CDMA's marketshare decline was the result of 12 months of no growth in the Korean market. The government mandated that SK Telecom/Shinsegi had to lose marketshare. Not much you can do about that.
Well, they had to lose market share to other Korea CDMA carriers. They had to go under 50% share.
However, marketshare on total number of handsets sold has risen dramatically over the last year. Total of about 410 million handsets sold during '00....of these 60 million were CDMA....14.6%
This year, Nokia is estimating 380 million total handsets(though others are estimating between 380m-400m)....and the estimated number of CDMA handsets is 75 million. This represents 19.7%.
Next year's marketshare is currently estimated at 20.5%. These are the numbers that determine economies of scale.
Maybe this is why so many companies are supporting CDMA, cause that's where the growth is. Lucent dropping their GSM business to focus squarely on CDMA. Ericsson saying they'll focus more on CDMA. RF Micro supporting CDMA. Everyone and every business wants to participate in growth markets where there is a tornado. That's why tornados are so important, it attracts businesses like honey attracts bees. I don't think people understand how power the tornado can be. While CDMA isn't in a tornado, it isn't declining as fast as GSM. Better than nothing.
Technology, capacity, speed, clarity, do make a difference and market share won't stop Qualcomm's better chips. GSM land is in much more danger of losing market share than the CDMA crowd.
Well, that's the theory Caxton Rhodes. In the past, I'm sure CDMA and Qualcomm bulls said CDMA had better voice quality, cheaper to use, had less radiation, ect..
Yet in markets where CDMA competes against GSM, it hasn't really conquered. Marketing and brand is hard to over come and carriers with strong brands will not be easy to beat. I do think there is a difference between data and voice. You can compare the speed you get with data. Hopefully, people will see the difference in speed between 1x and GPRS. They should also notice the price difference for data on both systems. The game is just starting and CDMA and Qualcomm better step up to the plate or else.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother with tech stocks. I could just buy some Coke stock, Intimate Brand stock, and some other companies with addictive products and not have to worry about competition and who will win. |
