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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 2brasil who wrote (8902)	2/25/1998 11:20:00 AM
From: bananawind	Respond to of 152472

All... More on Asian subscribership impacts.... Short-Term Cloudiness Aside, Asia's Long-Range Wireless Forecast Looks Good by Ellen B. Mullally The economic crisis in Asia will not have a long-term impact on wireless growth in the region, a Strategis Group official said during the recent Wireless Showcase Asia. Jonathan Tarlin, senior vice president-international for the Washington-based consulting and research firm, said "we're still very bullish on these markets" despite any slowdown in cellular and PCS growth that might result from the economic crisis through next year. During his presentation, Tarlin focused on five countries--Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines--that are regarded as having been hit the hardest by Asia's economic turmoil. Indonesia, he said, has experienced had the highest currency devaluation relative to the U.S. dollar of the five to date--slightly more than 70 percent since last June--while the Philippines is at the other end of the spectrum, having seen its currency lose some 37 percent of its value versus the greenback. Currency translations are affecting the wireless industry in several ways, Tarlin explained. Foreign-manufactured equipment has become more expensive, while the cost of servicing foreign debt is higher for operators that have been rapidly expanding in recent years. In reaction to this turn of events, he added, network infrastructure investment has been slowing and operators have been cutting costs, causing "supply-side impact and a demand-side impact as well." One nation that has not seen a severe impact, according to Tarlin, is Korea. He cited two main reasons for this: The recent introduction of PCS, which has stimulated market demand, and the fact that many handsets are manufactured in-country. Strategis Group estimates that Korea has "lost" only 3 percent of the subscribers it would have gained under normal circumstances in recent months; Indonesia and Thailand, on the other hand, have lost 14 percent and 10 percent, respectively. All the same, expansion of Korea's wireless markets may still suffer in the days ahead depending on what happens to the nation's economy, he cautioned. Learning From Mexico's Experience To illustrate how wireless companies in the region potentially could react to the economic crisis, Tarlin discussed what he called "the Mexican example." In late 1994, the value of the Mexican peso plunged 50 percent relative to the U.S. dollar. Mexico's two major cellular carriers--Telcel, a subsidiary of Telefonos de Mexico SA de CV [TMX], and Grupo Iusacell SA de CV [CEL]--reacted differently to the crisis: Telcel introduced prepaid cellular to keep subscriber growth rates up, while Iusacell focused on attracting and retaining high-end users to boost revenues. While these strategies were successful, Tarlin noted said that both companies "paid a price." Telcel grew its subscribers, but revenues suffered; Iusacell for the most part kept its revenues up but had flat subscriber growth. Thus, Asia-Pacific cellular/PCS operators "need to consider this trade-off carefully when deciding how to respond in the current economic environment," Tarlin concluded. No matter how Asian operators react in the short term, however, Strategis Group believes that wireless market growth ultimately will reflect the solid economic fundamentals of the region, as well as "the evolution of wireless as a basic and cost-effective communications tool," Tarlin said. Ellen Mullally is managing editor of Phillips Business Information's Wireless and Satellite Groups and the editorial director of Wireless '98 Today.

To: 2brasil who wrote (8902)	2/25/1998 11:37:00 AM
From: bananawind	Respond to of 152472

All... Somewhat OT... re telecom R&D efficiency.... ( BW)(PRTM) Top Performers in Telecom Equipment Segment Enjoy 3-1 Advantage in Revenue Growth and Profitability Business/Technology Editors WESTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 1998-- These are some of the results from the 1997 Product Development Benchmarking Study by management consultants Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath. 288 companies representing $40 billion in R&D spending participated in the study; 59 were in the telecommunications infrastructure equipment segment. The 1997 Product Development Benchmarking Study from management consultants Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath reveals that top performers in the telecommunications infrastructure equipment industry enjoy a three-to-one advantage in revenue growth and profitability as well as a 65% advantage in gross margins compared with the industry average. "The most impressive aspect of the business performance indicators measured in the study is that the gap between top performers and the industry average has been fairly consistent over the last three years," notes PRTM Director Kayvan Shahabi, the segment's Study Lead. "Given the dynamic nature of the industry, this points to a healthy product development pipeline." One of the driving forces behind this performance is the gap in time-to-market performance, according to Shahabi. "For platform projects (those that implement the first product or new products in a major new product line), time-to-market of top performers was one-half that of average performers: 53 weeks, compared to 102 weeks. For major projects (those that required a major change to an existing product or addition to an existing product line), the results were similar: 37 weeks, compared to 73 weeks. "The study also shows that top performers have great closing speed," adds Shahabi. "The top performers' schedule slip rate in early phases of product development exceeds that of the industry average, yet they improve on the timelines by as much as 70% at the end of the project. This supports product development pundits' most widely chanted product development mantra-- 'spending more time upfront yields benefits downstream.' " Another key finding of the study is in the area of wasted development spending (the sum of all spending for projects canceled during the development phase or beyond), where the industry average was an amazing 45 times that of the top performers. "It's difficult enough to deliver results with the scarce resources projects are assigned these days," says Shahabi. "It's inexcusable to waste any of them." Of all seven industry segments represented in the study, telecommunications equipment was notable in delivering the largest number of major projects per million dollars of R&D spending: Its 3.8 projects were head and shoulders above other industries' performance along this metric, from automotive's 2.7 to semiconductor's 1.0 and computers' 0.7. The telecommunications equipment segment also had a low metric for wasted development spending-at 9.8% it was bested only by the medical devices segment (9.0%). Besides an analysis across the seven industry segments of the study-aerospace/defense, automotive, chemicals/plastics, computers/electronic equipment, medical devices/diagnostics, semiconductors, and telecommunications equipment-the study offers analyses of the impact on performance of a company's level of product development process maturity. It compares companies to a process maturity model developed by PRTM. The model categorizes companies in one of four stages: -- Stage 0 - Informal Management (No standard practices are in place) -- Stage 1 - Functional Management (Development practices are formalized functionally) -- Stage 2 - Project Management Excellence (Practices are aligned for effective project management) -- Stage 3 - Portfolio Management Excellence (Strategy and execution practices are aligned for effective portfolio management) The study shows that as companies move from a functional management focus (Stage 1) to an emphasis on project management (Stage 2), performance improves across a spectrum of measures. However, major gains are attained only when companies become mature in their project management process. For companies transitioning into a project management orientation, their time-to-market and pipeline throughput performance actually deteriorates. Relative Performance by Stage in Key Metrics Functional Transitional Mature Stage 2 Stage 2 Revenue Growth Rate 0 + ++ Wasted Development Spending 0 + ++ Commercialization Success 0 + + Goal Attainment 0 + + Marketplace Renewal 0 + ++ Time-to-Market (TTM) 0 - ++ Time-to-Profitability (TTP) 0 - + Pipeline Throughput per $Million Spent 0 - ++ 0 is baseline - is worse than baseline + is better than baseline ++ is much better than baseline The study reveals companies' intentions as well as their current practices and results. Over the next several years, all participants say they intend to make dramatic changes to their product development process. Their stated goals for this process are: -- Instituting formal, on-going, company-wide market sensing -- Defuzzing the "fuzzy front end" of product development by moving to a more proactive and efficient process for identifying and screening opportunities -- Strategically optimizing their project portfolio -- Moving beyond product and product-line planning to platform management -- Installing useful systems to enable pipeline management -- Clearly separating technology and product development processes and linking them with effective technology transfer Notes on the Study Top-performing companies (the top 20% of the study sample) in the telecommunications segment were chosen based on seven criteria: Profitability, Revenue Growth, R&D Effectiveness Index, Time-to-Market, Wasted Development Spending, Pipeline Throughput, and Goal Attainment. Editor's Note: PRTM is an international management consulting firm that works with technology-based companies to set targets and implement improvements in such core business processes as product development, supply-chain management, and customer service and support. The firm has published two books on the subject of product development: Setting the PACE in Product Development: A Guide to Product And Cycle-time Excellence, and Product Strategy for High-Technology Companies. --30--gk/bos CONTACT: PRTM Kayvan Shahabi, 781/647-2800 kshahabi@prtm.com or Victoria Cooper, 781/647-2800 vcooper@prtm.com or Bridgeman Communications Dan Dent, 617/742-7270 Dan@bridgeman.com KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS TELECOMMUNICATIONS

To: 2brasil who wrote (8902)	2/25/1998 11:42:00 AM
From: Webster	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

AH! the art of communication and interpretation. Scott Wooley has interpreted qcoms' comments about Korean sales as: "Korean Sales Within Korea." I believe the offset qcom is referring to is: "Korean Sales Outside of Korea, such as sales destined to the U.S. and other parts of the world. If you ever listened to the old Abbott and Costello's "who's on first" it has a lot of similarity to the question "What about Korean Sales" Thanks. Web.

To: 2brasil who wrote (8902)	2/25/1998 2:39:00 PM
From: Disabled Account	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

I saw the Forbes article, but cannot determine the source of the information, which is not consistent with any provided by the company. I suspect this is just one more of several attempts recently to get the stock price down to a point where the institutional investors who missed out on a great investment earlier once again have a chance to get in. This kind of uncorroborated information has frequently been published by leading financial journals, including even Barron's and the Wall Street Journal. Again, the only conclusion one can draw is that there is an attempt to manipulate the stock price. The Forbes article was actually published and made available about two weeks ago, so it doesn't take into account any of the recent news events.