Qualcomm keys on 3G

Qualcomm Inc, a wireless communications products maker, will increase its focus on chipsets for mobile handsets in the Thai market to cash in on surging demand for smartphones.

The US-based firm expects sales of its wireless chipsets in Thailand to increase by 30-40% this year in line with the local growth in 3G handset sales, said Kaneungjit Suriyathumrongkul, country manager of Qualcomm Thailand.
Smartphone handset sales in Thailand were fuelled by strong demand last year for high-speed multimedia services.
"Even though 3G has yet to become available in Thailand, the market behaviour has already shifted towards the higher features phones with high-speed internet access," said Ms Kaneungjit.
She said the company will focus more on making wireless chipsets for mobile phones by co-operating with local mobile operators, 3G equipment suppliers and local house-brand 3G handset makers to increase sales.
"With the country's penetration rate of mobile phone already passed 100%, the market is moving into wireless data communications," Ms Kaneungjit said.
Qualcomm makes chipsets for cellular products, wireless modules for notebook computers under the Gobi brand, and computing systems for smartphones and netbooks under the Snapdragon brand.
Chipsets sales made accounted for 60% of Qualcomm's global revenues last year, with technology licensing fees contributing 35% and the remaining coming from services and applications.
There are 945 million 3G subscribers worldwide, with 615 operators in 166 countries. The figure is projected to reach 2.7 billion users by 2014, she said.
"By 2014, monthly worldwide mobile data traffic is expected to exceed the 2008 total," she said.
Qualcomm planned to produce multimode chipsets with higher processing power and multimedia integration to serve the industry's aligning trend.
It is estimated that global handset sales total 1 billion units per year, while sales of notebook computers reached 140-150 million a year, she said.