Nokia's Qualcomm Smear Campaign Won't Work

So Nokia (NOK) wakes up one day and decides that it is tired of having to make royalty payments to Qualcomm (QCOM).

Not content to roll up sleeves and sit at the negotiating table, or even to slug it out in court with a battery of countersuits, Nokia has now embarked on a global communications campaign to vilify Qualcomm by suggesting that the San Diego tech firm is, by its actions, slowing the adoption of 3G.

Carriers have made billions of dollars in investments in 3G licenses and gear, and Nokia's CTO, Tero Ojanpera appears to be trying to drum up a groundswell of sentiment from around the industry to force Qualcomm to give in to Nokia's royalty demands and to stop defending its intellectual property. Ojanpera was playing to a receptive crowd - Qualcomm has been the punching bag of Korea's techno-nationalists for years.

As a communicator, I give Nokia credit for trying to sow a meme that would get Qualcomm convicted in the court of public opinion. If it had worked, it may well have pushed Qualcomm into a corner and helped Nokia win its cases.

Unfortunately for the Nokians, in this industry, memories aren't that short. Too many of us remember how Nokia handled CDMA. First, they ignored it. When they couldn't ignore it, they ridiculed it. When they found they had to adopt it for 3G, they struggled for two years to figure out how to make it work because they wouldn't ask Qualcomm for assistance.

Now that they're in the 3G market and paying royalties, they appear to be trying to cripple - if not squash - Qualcomm for being right in the first place. Remember, if you will, that Qualcomm is NOT a competitor - it is merely an upstream technology provider. A vendor.

Open note to Nokia. Look, guys, I know it really bruises the ego to realize that despite all of the handsets you sell, you are nowhere near as strong on technology or design as you would like us to think you are. But lighten up a little. Be grateful to the folks who invented all this stuff so you could find ways to package it, market it, and sell it.

Stop trying to pretend that you are the font of all good things in the mobile communications industry. Be a little more of a partner and a little less a wanna-be Vainamoinen. You may well find out that the goodwill it earns you will help out in the long run.

Comments

[David Boettger:]

Ah, Nokia's ceaselessly tiring whinges about the baddies over at Qualcomm. Why is it that only David Wolf - who is fairly well removed from action - calls Nokia out on this issue?

Nokia: If you didn't want to pay Qualcomm, then why did you base UMTS on CDMA technology? CDMA wasn't the only option. You could have used OFDMA (Whoops! Late to the party on that one, too!). And Qualcomm's CDMA royalty rates are known to be in the neighborhood of 2.5%. How can you argue with a straight face that the sloth-like take-up of 3G is a matter of 2.5% in additional handset cost? To most cellular operators, 2.5% more for handsets is a rounding error in the OPEX budget. It would be better if you stopped treating us like imbeciles and stopped acting like tantrum-prone two-year-olds.

2007 Jun 05 01:09 AM

[xuefan_zheng:]

", then why did you base UMTS on CDMA technology?"

>>&g... And so what? Qualcomm build CDMA2000 on its own CDMA tech. Pure? No trouble? Now ITC give a ban, said it use Broadcom's cell selection, battery save tech.

2007 Jun 23 12:52 AM

[y2song:]

I agree. Nokia does have a twisted view of their non-existent dominance in the global wireless market. Enabled by Qualcomm, Asian OEMs are rapidly chipping away Nokia's old school market share. As David Wolf has pointed out, rather accurately, this is the real beef Nokia has with QCOM.

In term of competitions, Nokia always takes the if-we-can't-beat-them, smear-them stance. First the clamshell form factor. Remember how Nokia ba-humbug'ed the formfactor for years, until they were forced to admit their beloved candy-bar form factor is a thing of the past? Same thing with Razr-esque design. Nokia first smeared it and then copied it. Just recently, Nokia has come out and publicly ridiculed the iPhone/Prada/HTC form factor is a passing fad. Brilliant!

Also on the radar this week, Nokia is suing Qualcomm over BREW and MediaFLO. Why do they care? Because Nokia wants to be brand. They want all carriers to use an uniform Nokia UI (which is crap, IMHO). Qualcomm's BREW enable rapid carrier-branded UI development. MediaFLO vs DVBH is GSM vs CDMA all over again.

What is wrong with these Nokia people. Perhaps they don't get much sun in Finland?

2007 Jun 12 06:42 PM

[xuefan_zheng:]

Nokia does have a twisted view of their non-existent dominance in the global wireless market.
>>&g... Nearly 40% handset market share. Its tech friends, Ericsson,which also champion GSM, UMTS, own 30%-50% base station business. Where is your really-dominant CDMA folks, like LGE, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel?
So I guess you mean it should be like int he senate, that >66.6% can be called dominant.


MediaFLO vs DVBH is GSM vs CDMA all over again.
>>&g... Wow, wow, what a kind analogy. Wait a minute, who denote who? MediaFlo is like a GSM? Well, Mediaflo is a Qualcomm own, Qualcomm Sell, Qaulcomm Earn tech, a privately raised up pet. GSM belong to a bunch of collaborators. So if you should better mean that, MediaFlo = CDMA?
Then you are more wrong. CDMA, 300million around subscribers today, in this planet. GSM/UMTS, 2.2billion. My rigged numbers? Google it, go to GSM, CDMA's forum, boaster website.
Now who is more successful? You analogy is perfect!

2007 Jun 23 01:00 AM

[xuefan_zheng:]

" Nokia (NOK) wakes up one day and decides that it is tired o"
>>&g... Last year, NOK had already sued over QCOM with other 5 boys. It is not "finally" wake up.
Year 2001-2003, NOK, TXN and maybe STM, win over QCOM to have the right to develop CDMA2000 chips,phones. Wish you enjoy this story.


"Ojanpera was playing to a receptive crowd - Qualcomm has been the punching bag of Korea's techno-nationalists for years."
>>&g... You hit the process of one story but not disclose the end of the story. The end is, currently, Korean govement do not allow SKT, KTF to upgrade Qualcomm's CDMA tech to a new enhanced version called Rev. A, which aka. 3.7G, 3.5G,whatever.
Instead, SKT and KTF are promoting UMTS evolution version HSPA. This monthing, they got 1.2 and 0.8 million subscribers each. Nearly all the enrollment is happened in this half year.
Besides, Korean folks are doing their own version of Wimax, which is not Qualcomm's baby but INTC's.
So if what I said is true, do not think NOK's appeal is meaningful, realistic, profitable or just a show?


"When they found they had to adopt it for 3G, they struggled for two years to figure out how to make it work because they wouldn't ask Qualcomm for assistance."
>>&g... Wait a minute, you mean which 3G? CDMA2000 EVDO, EVDV or another one called W-CDMA or UMTS? When did NOK ask QCOM for help on UMTS, which actually was proposed by NTT Docomom, NOK, ERIC is the late 90's?
Now NOK has quit from C2000 tech, so does a bunch of folks like ERIC, TXN. There is no futher needs for QCOM's help.


"Remember, if you will, that Qualcomm is NOT a competitor - it is merely an upstream technology provider. A vendor."
>>&g... NOK hopes so, but the reality is, Qualcomm's chip empowers every phone of LGE, Samsung, 1/4 of MOTO, nearly, in 3G.

2007 Jun 23 01:20 AM

[User 239889:]

This is great news!

2008 Aug 13 07:22 AM