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

To: Jim Mullens who wrote (36904)	9/10/2003 12:49:04 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 197032

WSJ -- China Attempts to Set New High-Tech Standards. September 10, 2003 China Attempts to Set New High-Tech Standards By EVAN RAMSTAD Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL HONG KONG -- China surprised the wireless industry three years ago by declaring it would create its own technical standard for third-generation mobile phones. Then it said it was going to develop its own format for digital television. And six weeks ago, it announced it was creating a different audio and video standard for the next wave of DVD players and videogame players. China's drive to create new standards in high technology is part of its broader desire to claim equal footing with the world's top economic powers. While China now makes more electronic goods than any other country, the underlying technology nearly always comes from somewhere else. Its manufacturers pay a price for that dependence. Chinese manufacturers of DVD players pay between $3.50 and $5 a machine to the Japanese and European firms that own DVD patents. Manufacturers in such places as Japan and the U.S. often pay lower fees because they own some of the patents they use. A standard is simply an agreement on how to accomplish a technical task using a variety of patented ideas. The current standard for turning audio and video into digital signals, called MPEG-2, involves patents from 22 companies around the world, but none from China. By creating homegrown technical standards, China is trying to increase the use of Chinese innovations world-wide. And it is using its own large domestic market to help speed up their adoption. By requiring these standards to be used on technical products in China, international companies that want access to that market are forced to make products that use them. Some multinational companies are joining the efforts to develop these standards. Siemens AG is playing a leading role in helping to develop China's 3G mobile-phone standard, called TD-SCDMA. International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Philips Electronics NV all joined the Chinese group that announced the new way to compress audio and video signals into digital form. China is following a path previously trod by others. Technical standards vary around the world because different countries backed the competing technical designs of local companies. As a result, European televisions and cellphones work on different standards than U.S. ones do. "China is just following what everyone else does," says Stephen Wong, chairman of Skyworth Digital Holdings Ltd., one of China's largest TV makers. Even so, China is reluctant to adopt a standard that would end up preventing its consumers and manufacturers from adopting a better or cheaper technology used elsewhere. In 3G, for example, China's wireless-service providers would like to use a standard that already has been adopted in Europe, called WCDMA. "It would be more cost effective," says Jacky S.L. Yung, assistant chief financial officer of China Mobile Ltd., the country's leading wireless-service operator. China's homegrown TD-SCDMA standard, he says, "might be a good complement or supplement." The country's telecommunications regulator is expected to decide in favor of using two 3G technical standards, just as it has permitted two systems for the current generation of mobile phones. However, in other areas, China is looking to set the standard even beyond its own borders by licensing its standard at a lower cost to competitors. The Beijing-based Audio-Video Coding Standards, or AVS, group aims to publish a standard by the end of the year that will compete with MPEG-4, the next generation of the standard used in DVD players, videogames and the Internet. Engineers in China began working on it a year ago after the licensors of MPEG-4 met resistance when they created a complex and potentially costly royalty scheme. The AVS group instead is proposing charging only a few cents per device, paid by manufacturers, to use its standard. But the group isn't alone in offering an alternative to MPEG-4. Microsoft has its own method for encoding and decoding audio and video signals, called Windows Media, and also is touting a simple license. And the MPEG licensors are working on a version of MPEG-4 that may forgo the per-use fees. Write to Evan Ramstad at evan.ramstad@wsj.com Updated September 10, 2003 Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To: Jim Mullens who wrote (36904)	9/10/2003 7:20:28 AM
From: jackmore	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197032

New LG Camera Phone 10th September 2003 US : LG Mobile Phones and Verizon Wireless announced today the availability of the LG VX6000, a top-of-the-line wireless handset with an embedded camera that offers a long list of the most advanced functions and have-to-have-it styling. The LG VX6000 features the newly launched picture messaging service from Verizon Wireless. The most robust picture messaging service on the market, this new offering from Verizon Wireless lets customers use photos to personalize their wireless experience and easily share special moments. The new service gives Verizon Wireless customers a visual way to communicate; they can snap photos using the VX6000 and then upload, store, share and send pictures to any e-mail address or any Verizon Wireless TXT Messaging-enabled phone- a feature unique to Verizon Wireless customers - in just a few simple steps. Sharing unforgettable moments with friends and family through LG's simple-to-use graphical interface with Verizon Wireless' picture messaging service makes it an easy-to-use wireless multimedia service. When sending a photo from camera phone to camera phone, customers simply take the photo and then can add a text message, one of five pre-programmed digital "frames" or an audio file to the photos. They can also include up to four minutes of audio or a sound effect (a pre-programmed ringer or downloaded sound) to accompany the photo to further personalize the message. The LG VX6000's sleek silver shape has a new twist on the trademark LG clamshell design with an external Organic Electro-Luminescent (OEL) display, a feature that saves valuable battery life as well as enhances the phone design with functional, colorful flashes of moving light. The LG VX6000 offers one of the only zoom control features available. Shutterbugs can zoom in on their subjects up to four times and adjust the resolution of the photo with three settings: Low (160x120), Medium (320x240) and High (640x480). The VX6000 is also Get It NowSM-enabled. Verizon Wireless' Get It Now service is a one stop virtual shop for the company's extensive consumer data products. In addition to offering customers the company's extensive selection of data products in one convenient location, Get It Now offers Verizon Wireless customers simplified pricing. getIM, getEMAIL and getBROWSING are $4.99 monthly access, plus airtime. Download charges for getTONES, getGAMES, getGOING, getPIX and getFLIX vary by application and airtime charges apply when browsing, downloading and using certain applications. And with getALERTS and getTXT, customers can pay 10 cents per message sent and 2 cents for each message received, or choose one of the bundled pricing options of $2.99 per month for 100 TXT Messages and TXT Alerts, $3.99 per month for 200 TXT Messages and TXT Alerts or $7.99 per month for 600 TXT Messages and TXT Alerts sent and received. "The VX6000 is simply one of the most technically capable and beautiful phones available today," said Dan Gralak, vice president of sales for LG Mobile Phones. "If you've been waiting to upgrade to a camera phone and are looking for a model with all the features, functionality, style and sophistication you could ever want, your search is over. The LG VX6000 has arrived." "The launch of our robust and differentiated picture messaging service with the VX6000 is a testament to the strong business relationship we have formed with LG," said Jim Straight, vice president of the Verizon Wireless Internet and multimedia group. The VX6000 offers the following features: -CMOS 330,000 Pixels -Digital Zoom (Low 4x, Medium 2x, High 1x) -Fun Frame (5 Options) -3 Resolution Adjustments (Low: 160x120, Medium: 320x240, Hi: 640x480) -Built-in mirror for Self Portraiture -Upload, Store and Share Pictures -White Balance Adjustment (Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Darkness) -Color Effects Adjustment (Normal, Antique, Black & White, Negative) -Innovative, Stylish Clamshell -External LCD for Quick Access to Caller ID (OEL) -Get It NowSM Capable -E911 Emergency Location Capable -Blue Backlit Keypad -5-Way Navigation Key -CMX MIDI for Sounds and Ringers -30 Voice-Activated Dialing Entries -Caller ID Ringers: 31, Plus Vibrate & Silent Alert -Wallpapers (including Beach Ball, Towerbridge, Sunflower, Beach, Fish, Sea and Snowman) -Speed Dialing (99 Entries) -Personal Organizer: Calendar with Scheduler, Alarm Clock, Voice Memo, Notepad, EZ Tip Calculator, Calculator and World Clock -Large Phone Book (499 Entries; 5 numbers and 3 e-mail addresses per contact) -English and Spanish User Interface - Picture Messaging Service (MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service) -Openwave UP 4.1 Browser -TTY/TDD Capable -Internal USB Capable -Two-Way Short Messaging Service -T9 Text Input Offered for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year customer agreement. 207.68.162.250