Qualcomm to Make Windfall From GPS Requirement for Korean Telcos
The Korean wireless market is dominated by CDMA, specifically Qualcomm’s flavor of CDMA. In 2000 Qualcomm collected nearly $1 billion in royalites from Korean handset makers and carriers. Now the Korea Times is reporting that the government’s new GPS requirements could be a another windfall for Qualcomm since their CDMA/GPS solution is ready to go and no other solutions exist at the moment. Part of this is great timing and execution for Qualcomm. But you have to wonder if no other options exist due to the closed nature of their platform. Sure GSM/UMTS has its problems, but at least its an open standard with solutions from many vendors. The CDMA world is much smaller by comparison.
