Posted 11/20/09 at 08:10:29 PM by Ryan Whitwam

You may not be aware, but Qualcomm holds a number of patents on modern 3G cellular technology. Any company making a 3G cell phone has to pay patent royalties to Qualcomm. Analyst Sanford Bernstein pointed out in a report this week that Apple appears to be taking advantage of a licensing loophole to avoid paying all those fees for the iPhone. The loophole is estimated to save Apple $290 million in fiscal 2009 alone.

Licensees must pay 5% of the wholesale price of a 3G device to the patent owner. Qualcomm’s website lists over 145 companies that have licensed their 3G technology. The list includes all major makers of 3G handsets. The one notable exception? Apple. One surprise on the list is Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the iPhone.

The Bernstein report says that Qualcomm is being paid royalties not on the price Apple charges (average $590), but on the unit price Apple pays Foxconn, a mere $244. So instead of making $23.60 per iPhone, Qualcomm is only seeing $9.70. Apple is able to get away with this because the entire manufacturing process is done externally. Qualcomm seems fine with the arrangement. After all, $9.70 per iPhone is pretty good considering how they fly off the shelves.

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Posted 10/12/09 at 03:28:40 PM by Bart Salisbury

As oversell in the wireless industry continues apace its fairly apparent that existing networks can’t keep up with demand. AT&T is the glowing example, unable to manage the enormous data demands placed upon it’s networks by iPhone users, resulting in slow service and dropped calls. Qualcomm, a mobile data service provider, has offered up an obvious solution: make the networks denser.

 Obvious, yes, but not in an obvious way. Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm’s CEO, says that by using femto networks on top of existing networks it’s possible to get “eight to 10 times improvement in user experience.” Patrick Mannion of RF Design Line describes femto networks, or femtocells, as “a low-cost, low-power cellular basestation that provides improved indoor coverage while backhauling the cellular traffic over a broadband connection.” Femtocells are preferred to a Wi-Fi option because the networks are more reliable and they allow wireless providers to keep control over revenue that would otherwise be lost if signals were carried on Wi-Fi.

John Walko, of the EE Times, is reporting that AT&T is currently experimenting with femtocell networks in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sprint has similar testing underway in Denver and Indianapolis.

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Posted 08/27/09 at 04:49:19 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to a recent report, Qualcomm is looking to launch a new personal television device called FLO TV. While it won’t have a station dedicated to our very own Ms. Florence Ion, it will support broadcasting of Qualcomm’s terrestrial digital TV service.

While the FLO TV service is already included with a handful of cellphones from Samsung, Motorola and LG, the idea behind the device will be to get better video through a terrestrial broadcast, rather than using the bandwidth of a 3G wireless network. This way, there shouldn’t be any network congestion or buffering to worry about.

It’s reported that the device will come with a capacitive touchscreen that will take advantage of a swipe and gesture-driven UI, 4GB of built-in memory, stereo speakers, and enough battery life to watch five hours of TV, or listen to 15 hours of music.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

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Posted 01/20/09 at 04:32:41 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Qualcomm has bought AMD’s handset division for $65 million. AMD has disposed of the handset business to exclusively focus on its fundamental businesses. The handset business has only spewed losses and caused despair ever since it fell into AMD’s lap as part of its 2006 acquisition of ATI.

Qualcomm has agreed to retain some of the existing employees involved in the handset division, although the exact figure hasn’t been revealed. Qualcomm will use the technology, which has changed hands as part of the deal, to develop more advanced graphics and audio solutions for mobile devices. 

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