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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (69136)	9/24/2007 2:51:23 PM
From: inaflash	Respond to of 213177

Does that mean that it doesn't matter whether the handset sells for $600 or $200 that Qualcomm doesn't benefit? The operators have a huge incentive to subsidize the handsets so the wholesale price is almost always higher than the retail price. Yeah, that's the norm, but Razr and iPhone at launch are presumably more than wholesale (i.e. unsubsidized). Again, if prices are completely locked into wholesale prices, why deal with dozens of operators worldwide instead of a handful of phonemakers, which they already do? If they're really doing so, then they must be gaining something from that. It could be that Nokia/Mot/etc. are passing on the licensing cost much like phone/power/etc. companies are adding "surcharges" up the wazoo (as an alternative to raising list prices). BTW, governments are doing same accounting trick to avoid "raising taxes" by adding "fees"; same with schools avoiding "tuition increases" but "fees going up". It's all bullshit, and it's time people started calling them on it. There's a lot of legal details to be ironed out, but it could be argued (by Qualcomm) that ANY payments from ATT to Apple related to the phone can be considered part of the "wholesale" cost. I am sure that Qualcomm will make that argument and Apple will respond that those payments are for the continual software upgrades. I just hope that they manage to work something out. There are enough lawsuits in the wireless industry.... Yeah, way too much discord and lawsuits. In any case, I doubt Apple will get away with a "zero cost" phone argument as a way to avoid legitimate licensing fees. If the contract Qualcomm is ironclad, these accounting tricks won't hold water. They might have to haggle over whether the $150 parts or estimated parts plus assembly price for the iPhone is the basis, but an easier way for Qualcomm to avoid all this is to just charge the entire licensing on the chips (chipmakers) and forget about the whole assemblies.