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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (40223)	9/9/2003 1:00:08 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69925

Nokia Cellphones Sell, but Too Cheaply Tuesday September 9, 12:19 pm ET By Brett Young HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia said on Tuesday brisk handset demand might allow it to top its third quarter earnings forecast, but lower prices and a weak dollar could mean falling revenues at its main unit. ADVERTISEMENT Nokia's comments in its mid-quarter update underlined how even the world's strongest mobile phone maker is being hit by ferocious competition mainly from Asian rivals as its profit margins, the sector's highest, are under pressure. Mobile phone demand is once again on the rise after three years of stagnation, fueled by robust growth in developing markets such as India and China, but the Finnish technology bellwether also said every phone was sold much cheaper than last year due to increased competition and weakness in the dollar. A soft dollar means Nokia gets less in terms of euros for each phone it sells in countries in the Americas and Asia. "(Third-quarter) ASPs are estimated to be down... both year-on-year and sequentially," Chief Financial Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told a conference call. He declined to say how profit margins would develop in the fourth quarter. The comments sent Nokia's shares lower, with the stock off up to 5.7 percent before trimming losses to close official trade 4.4 percent lower at 14.42 euros, dragging the Dow Jones Stoxx Eurotech Index 2.7 percent lower. In New York, the company's shares were off 5.2 percent at $16.16 at 1557 GMT. Nokia shares are still below July levels when it revealed profit margins would fall from the second quarter. Nokia now said pro forma earnings for the quarter ending September 30 would be at the top end of, or slightly above, its previously announced range of 0.15-0.17 euros per share, versus 0.18 euros a year ago. WHAT ABOUT Q4? While the guidance was a slight improvement on Nokia's earlier, disappointing, forecast, investors were mainly concerned that the larger than usual price declines will dent profit margins beyond the third quarter results, due October 16. "Despite all the positive comments by Nokia, the coin has another side -- average selling prices for phones are falling I believe... by between 15-20 percent year-on-year and this is not encouraging," said Conventum Securities analyst Jari Honko. "Investors are now extremely scared about what sort of average phone prices we'll see in the fourth quarter," he said. Nokia repeated unit volumes at its core mobile phone handsets division would rise well above 10 percent in the quarter, but revenues at the business would be flat to lower year-on-year due to a stronger dollar in the comparable period. "Overall it is hard to extrapolate the third quarter results to the fourth quarter," said analyst Stuart Jeffrey at Lehman Brothers in London. Although sales are under pressure, Nokia still has the highest profit margins in an increasingly crowded market thanks to its global reach, economies of scale and tight logistics. The Finnish company sells more than twice as many phones as its nearest competitor, Motorola, and is approaching a global market share of 40 percent. Recent data from companies and research groups show mobile phone sales have been strong especially in countries such as India and China that offer firms hundreds of millions of potential new clients. Nokia has targeted these markets, and last month launched its first mobile phone in China running on the CDMA (code division multiple access) standard, part of a broader drive to raise its share of the world's second largest mobile standard. Kallasvuo said the efforts were already paying off, and singled out the Americas and China where it increased sales. Nokia also repeated third-quarter sales at its wireless telecoms networks unit would sink by 15-20 percent year-on-year, with the pro-forma operating profit expected to be close to break-even. It said the networks market appeared to be stabilizing, but it remained to be seen how and what pace it would recover. Kallasvuo said the firm was still expecting the market to fall by over 15 percent in 2003. (Additional reporting by Pekka Lahteenmaki, Lucas van Grinsven in Amsterdam and Peter Starck in Stockholm)

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (40223)	9/20/2003 10:58:05 PM
From: James F. Hopkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69925

Harry where did you do the Low price vs Cash scan ? And can you include in the scan Debt levels.. if not debt levels then Return on assets AND Return on equity.. that will indicate debt level.. ie high return on equity vs low return on assets equate to high debt. ----- In the past I've found buying high cash can be a trap if they have high debt. Thanx Jim

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (40223)	9/21/2003 12:00:05 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69925

Magnets attracting wireless attention Last modified: September 19, 2003, 3:55 PM PDT By Ben Charny Staff Writer, CNET News.com Magnets are beginning to gain the attention of home-electronics manufacturers and government agencies as an alternative to Bluetooth and other short-range wireless techniques. News.context What's new: Manufacturers and government agencies are exploring the use of magnetic waves to transfer data across short distances. Bottom line: If it proves feasible, "magnetic induction" could supplant current wireless technologies such as Bluetooth. For more info: More wireless information This week, Troy, Mich.-based manufacturer Fonegear began selling cordless cell phone headsets that use the properties of a magnetic field. The headsets, which cost between $60 and $80 each, are the first wave of mass-market electronic devices that use a new generation of magnet-powered wireless technology. The next to debut will likely be routers that let home stereos and televisions wirelessly connect with a personal computer to play songs or movies, sources said. The Department of Defense is also using a magnetic approach with rifle-mounted video cameras that can wirelessly beam images to a helmet-worn monitor. Using the gear, next-generation warriors won't have to expose themselves to enemy fire during battle by poking their heads out of a foxhole or around a corner. At the heart of the new interest in what's known as "magnetic induction" is Aura, or so claims the nine-year-old chipmaker, founded by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates. The company has spurred a fresh look from manufacturers because it's managed to take an approach that used to require four-foot-wide wire coils and other cumbersome gear, and shrink it onto a single chip, said Aura Vice President Dan Cui. Developed in the late 1950s, magnetic induction never really caught on commercially because of the equipment size. It's now sporadically used by museums, for self-guided tour devices that can sense when a user has entered a given gallery. Aura's goal is to make magnetic induction a major new option for manufacturers looking to snip wires from electronic devices, Cui said. Among the most popular methods now is Bluetooth, a standard that creates a powerful but short-range wireless connection between devices. Bluetooth is supported by giants like Microsoft and cell phone maker Nokia, even though the technology, developed by Ericsson, is prone to interference and is a renowned power drain. Cui claims magnetic induction has begun making a dent, albeit a small one, in the spread of Bluetooth. He said Fonegear evaluated Bluetooth and other wireless techniques before choosing Aura's chips. Fonegear President Ken Eisenbraun said in a statement that "Through this new design, we expect to shake up the industry and show people what a high-quality wireless headset experience is all about." Aside from Fonegear and the Department of Defense, NASA plans to use Aura's chips on future space suits, so a wearer's vital statistics can be monitored from afar. An Ericsson representative had no immediate comment on the implications for Bluetooth. A member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which publishes the Bluetooth standard, was unavailable for comment Friday. Magnetic induction differs from Bluetooth and just about every other wireless technique now available, most of which use what's known as radio frequency, or RF, signals--bursts of electrical energy that waft out like ripples in a pond until they reach an antenna. Magnetic fields also create waves, but the waves form a kind of bubble, which stops growing after four feet, making them more secure than waves wafting endlessly in every direction, Cui said. The magnetic approach also consumes very little power when compared with notorious battery-draining RF techniques like Bluetooth. According to a description on the Aura Web site, Fonegear's headset can keep going for up to three months on a single AA battery, as opposed to only a number of hours for equipment outfitted with Bluetooth. There's also the matter of interference. RF signals are assigned areas of spectrum in which to operate, creating crowded conditions where signals can bounce up against each other, causing interference. But magnetic fields operate in an area of spectrum that's for now used very rarely, and only for industrial, scientific or medical use. "Interference is not an issue," Cui said.