Filling in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi integration
Qualcomm has spent well in excess of $40m readying itself for a world beyond CDMA.
The purchase of RF Micro Devices and Airgo Networks Inc gives Qualcomm experience and technology in cutting-edge Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communications, enabling it to compete in a world where phone handsets support a variety of radio technologies.
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Phone handsets from Nokia now sport seven different radios, so there is an imperative for Qualcomm to be able to offer the most important of those in a single package to manufacturers, and these purchases will give them the ability to do just that relatively quickly.
While the ownership of key CDMA technologies has served Qualcomm well in the past, as GSM continues to dominate and applications become more network-agnostic they will need to innovate more aggressively if they are to maintain their position, and acquiring such cutting-edge technologies will work well in that regard.
[MORE]Bottom line: The future of CDMA2000 looks bleaker and bleaker.