Nov. 13, 2006

Qualcomm and Motorola will collaborate on W-CDMA handsets for global markets, the two companies announced.

The agreement between the chip maker and the world’s second-largest handset maker is a boost for Qualcomm, which has worked to diversify beyond its traditional business base in CDMA technologies by developing chips for the GSM migration path.

Further, as Qualcomm’s relationship with Nokia Corp.—the market-leading handset maker—remains uncertain pending the outcome of lawsuits, a cross-licensing agreement and anti-trust complaints between the two companies, the Motorola deal solidifies its customer base in the 3G flavor of GSM.

The expanded relationship between Qualcomm and Motorola means that the handset maker has approved Qualcomm’s 3G chip for its W-CDMA handsets.

Separately, Qualcomm also announced it has integrated a radio transceiver, baseband modem and multimedia processor with power management functions into a single chip for W-CDMA and HSDPA handsets.

This effectively lowers the overall cost while accelerating the time-to-market for Qualcomm's customers.

The chip maker refers to the new product as serving WEDGE (W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE) and HEDGE (HSDPA/W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE) purposes.

Qualcomm’s blitz of announcements also included news that its Snapdragon platform, which is intended to extend wireless mobility to a range of consumer electronics devices beyond mobile phones, will be available for sampling in the third quarter of next year, according to the company.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which makes a range of consumer electronics devices including mobile phones, said that it would be among the first vendors to explore Snapdragon’s use in new markets.

The Snapdragon platform is expected to provide added functionality to future generations of gaming, portable entertainment and mobile computing devices, which would represent new and diversified markets for Qualcomm.

Source: RCR News