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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio candidates - Moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: voop who wrote (748)	3/8/2004 5:44:58 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2955

WCDMA Chipsets: DBDM CDMA2000/WCDMA for Korea Voop, Could you explain why you think Qualcomm is hesitant to develop the single chip DBDM solution? I was wondering why the heck you were asking me that here, then realized that what I thought I sent as a PM to Tinker, I posted here. Oh, well, It's been that kind of day and I'm not as good as I used to be at multitasking. <g> I don't precisely know. I think there may be several possibilities. A.) It is a tactic in the tense Korea games: i.e. They don't want to make it easy for the Korean to implement WCDMA in IMT-2000 and they would prefer that focus in Korea be placed on 1xEV-DO deployment and proliferation. B.) It is a Hero play: i.e. They don't think that Samsung, LGE, EoNex, SKT and KTF can pull this off without them, and they feel they can step in with the solution at the precise proper moment, to solidify ongoing relationships. B.) It is a matter of setting resource priorities relative to ROI, and they have a lot on their plate, and after 7000 Series development and 1xEV-DO Release A, the top priority is 3GSM WCDMA and an early lead or at least parity in HSDPA, followed by 1xEV-DV. Behind that they have to consider the incorporation of EDGE, and UTRA TDD HCR and LCR (TD-SCDMA), 802.11 WiFi, as well as DBDM. C.) DBDM Complexity particularly as it relates to seamless handover of voice and data between dissimilar technologies. They haven't even mastered handover between 1xRTT and GSM GPRS yet. D.) They feel the 7000 series is better suited to DBDM E.) Some of the above. F.) All of the above. If strategy and tactics are involved or even if it's a resource issue, and WCDMA is tremendously resource intensive as they are finding out, there is considerable attendant risk, particularly if the Korean, government, ministry, carriers, and vendors, feel that Qualcomm pulled the plug on DBDM to delay WCDMA IMT-2000 implementation, particularly since Qualcomm lobbied for the mandate to require DBDM. There is already some animosity about the fact that after lobbying for the ministry to overturn at least one of the 3 carriers IMT-2000 WCDMA technology decisions, and that winner, or loser, or odd man in or out (depending on your perspective), decided to hold off and implement CDMA2000 Release C (1xEV-DV) instead of 1xEV-DO, or waiting for Release D, and is sticking to its guns with the backing of the ministry, the government, and vendors. The risk is that now we have Samsung developing single chip DBDM in house, and if they master that they are ahead in the WCDMA chipset game, LGE collaborating with EoNex for DBDM and every other flavor of 'cdma.' and LGE working with TI on 1xEV-DV Release C, which has opened the door for 1xRTT. I personally think this is hardball, but I'm not really positive of that. I trust Qualcomm's strategic decision making capability, much more so today than I did 3 years ago, and their business acumen. I'm sure that Qualcomm will remain an important strategic partner of the Korean vendors and carriers. I do think that there is a coordinated effort in Korea to reduce dependence on Qualcomm, and I think that some portion of the revenue flow from Qualcomm's two largest customers is at risk. JMHO and FWLIW. - Eric -