AllThingsD » CDMA

Network-Hopping iPhone 4S Not Without Its Restrictions

Ina Fried — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:53:00 +0000

The fact that a single iPhone 4S works on Sprint, Verizon and AT&T would seem to open up so many possibilities for users who want to transfer service providers at the end of their contract or even switch back and forth when they travel.

However, because of both business reasons and technical limitations, that flexibility isn’t what one might think.

In order to work on a CDMA network, an iPhone 4S has to be activated on a CDMA network at time of purchase (and switching a device even between Sprint and Verizon is harder than one would think).

That limitation also means that, although Apple is selling an unlocked iPhone 4S, it is really only an unlocked GSM version, the kind used by AT&T. And, like prior unlocked iPhones, while they can work on T-Mobile USA, they will run only at 2G speeds because T-Mobile’s fastest networks use a band that is different from that of AT&T and not one supported by the iPhone.

These issues also crop up when using the iPhone as a “world phone.” While an iPhone 4S activated on Sprint and Verizon can roam onto GSM networks, such as those used in Europe and parts of Asia, an iPhone activated on AT&T won’t necessarily be able to run on CDMA networks outside of the U.S., such as those in Korea.

There can also be business rules imposed on how easily the iPhone (or any phone) can be made to run on other carriers’ networks. Some of those policies can continue even after a contract has ended, as Apple notes in the fine print of its technical specifications for the new iPhone (and as pointed out by Danny Sullivan, on his blog).

“The iPhone model you purchase is subject to your wireless service provider’s policies, which may include restrictions on switching service providers and roaming, even after conclusion of any required minimum service contract,” Apple states.

While arcane and perhaps irrelevant for those who don’t travel much and plan to stick with one carrier, such considerations are worth pointing out, especially as the iPhone 4S goes on sale at midnight.

Sprint Could Sell Six Million iPhones in 2012

John Paczkowski — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:35:05 +0000

With Sprint reportedly set to join Verizon and AT&T as Apple’s third carrier partner in the U.S. this fall, Apple is poised to sell more iPhones than ever before. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says a Sprint deal like this could raise iPhone sales growth from 30 percent to 37 percent in calendar year 2012.

Using some back-of-the-napkin math and iPhone sales at Verizon as a baseline, Munster figures Apple could sell an additional six million iPhones in 2012 via Sprint.

“We believe in the first two quarters, Verizon sold 4.6 million iPhones,” Munster said in a note to clients. “We are modeling for Verizon to sell 12 million iPhones in the first year of having the iPhone. In other words, we expect 11 percent of phones sold at Verizon will be iPhones (~CY11). If 11 percent of Sprint’s phones sold in CY12 were iPhones, that would add ~6 million iPhones to our estimate, increasing our overall CY12 iPhone unit estimate by 5 percent, from 111 million to 117 million.”

That’s if the iPhone does show up at Sprint this fall; at this point the consensus is that it’s likely.

As Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair explains, it’s been widely thought that once AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity deal with Apple expired and Verizon began selling the device, Sprint would follow with its own CDMA iPhone offering.

“It does appear that a 2011 launch of the iPhone 5 at Sprint will actually happen,” Blair told AllThingsD. “The key is the company’s relatively recent support of CDMA at Verizon. So now that the company is supporting both GSM and CDMA and no longer has an exclusive deal with AT&T, there is no barrier to adding Sprint as a distribution channel, and addressing Sprint’s 50-plus million subscriber base would provide a nice boost to quarterly shipments. My view is that iPhone availability at the carrier is likely to be announced late September when Apple announces the new handset, followed by early October availability. For years, Apple has had a multicarrier strategy in place in nearly every other part of the world outside of the U.S., and now the U.S. is catching up.”

PREVIOUSLY:

Apple Launching iPhone 5 in October

Will Sprint Get an iPhone for the Holidays?

IPhone 5′s Big New Features: Sprint, T-Mobile

More iPhone news

IPhone 5's Big New Features: Sprint, T-Mobile

John Paczkowski — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:25:06 +0000

Further corroboration of rumors that the next iteration of Apple’s iPhone will be more of a refinement of its predecessor than an overhaul.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek too says the device will be largely similar to the iPhone 4, but with significant improvements under the hood.

“We believe the likelihood of the iPhone 5 launch in September including LTE [Long-Term Evolution] is now remote,” Misek said in a note to clients. “According to our industry checks, the device should be called iPhone 4S and will include minor cosmetic changes, better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ support.”

These specs are essentially the same ones Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported back in April, so Misek’s not particularly telling us anything new, with the exception of one very interesting detail. He expects Apple to launch the the iPhone 5/4S on a handful of new carriers, Sprint, T-Mobile, and China Telecom among them.

“Industry checks indicate AAPL has or is about to announce new carrier deals in time for the holidays with T-Mobile and Sprint,” Misek wrote. “Additionally, we believe another China carrier could launch the iPhone in the next 12 months. On Apple’s last earnings call, management responded to a question about launching the CDMA iPhone at other carriers as “we are constantly looking and adding where it makes sense, and you can keep confidence that we’ll continue to do that.”

For Apple iPhone, CDMA Means Capturing Developing Markets in Asia

John Paczkowski — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:05:45 +0000

The Verizon iPhone was likely just the first step in Apple’s broader push into the CDMA handset market. And while the company stands to reap the most benefit from that first partnership, there are plenty of other opportunities abroad for CDMA market success.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz figures Apple could rake in as much as $6 billion from CDMA iPhone sales through Verizon, and half that through carrier partners overseas, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We expect the iPhone’s relative growth to moderate over time, but in the next 18-24 months, we see incremental growth opportunities in both Asia- Pacific and the U.S., specifically in CDMA-based networks,” he writes. “Apple just began to penetrate this opportunity with its Verizon iPhone launch in February, and we think that the incremental CDMA market penetration can be a multi-year phenomenon for the company.”

I’d say so, considering there are some 564 million CDMA subscribers worldwide, of which Verizon’s 95 million comprise just 17 percent. So where will Apple bring the CDMA iPhone next? Moskowitz thinks the company will focus its efforts where CDMA adoption rates are highest: China, India, Japan, and South Korea. And, in all likelihood, it’s probably close to hammering at least a few of these deals out.

Apple is widely rumored to be negotiating a CDMA iPhone deal with China Telecom. It’s also said to be in talks with Reliance and rival CDMA carrier Tata Teleservices in India. Assuming Apple finalizes some, if not all, of them in the next year, what kind of sales and revenue can we expect from them? Moskowitz expects Apple to sell 10 million CDMA iPhones through Verizon in calendar 2012 for $6 billion in revenues. Overseas, he expects the company to capture about 10 percent of the CDMA market in 2012, which would generate approximately $3 billion in revenue.

That’s a nice boost to Apple’s bottom line and to the iPhone’s growth trajectory, which may well continue to outpace that of the broader smartphone market–if Moskowitz’s numbers pan out.

[Image credits: iFixit and JP Morgan]

Exclusive: Apple iPad 2 Event Set for March 2

Kara Swisher — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:00:15 +0000

To those who care intensely about this kind of stuff–which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem–Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad, according to multiple sources.

As in, iPad 2! Or, as BoomTown is now officially nicknaming it: iPad Too!

Analysts expect the iPad 2 to be thinner than its predecessor and feature an improved display, as well as front-facing camera and Facetime video chat support. And some reports suggest it will be powered by one of Qualcomm’s multimode chips and will run on both GSM and CDMA-based networks around the world.

In its last earnings calls, Apple said it had sold nearly 15 million iPads, since it went on sale last spring.

This is a very big deal, although Apple will be facing increased competition with the launch of a passel of tablets coming from numerous manufacturers, most of which are using the Honeycomb version of Google’s Android mobile operating system.

According to several sources close to the situation, the Wednesday date in a little more than a week is firm and will take place in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events.

In that case, the venue is likely to be the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

It’s not clear when Apple will begin sending out its famous invites for the gathering, but I am guessing soon, in order to get the Apple faithful to the proper level of froth.

(The image above is from one of my favorite previous save-the-dates.)

Now that this date is confirmed–at least by me!–the next round of speculation will be around whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs will appear or not. Sources said he is considering it.

He is currently on leave to deal with ongoing health issues, although has been sighted all around Silicon Valley at various places. In addition, Jobs sat right next to President Barack Obama at a high-profile meet-the-tech-moguls dinner in the area last week.

In other words: Let the media frenzy begin!

Microsoft to Add Multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone Later this Year

Ina Fried — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:00:42 +0000

Microsoft announced on Monday plans to fill in some of the key gaps from the initial Windows Phone 7 release with two updates due out this year.

The more interesting of the updates is the second one–a major release–due later this year. In a Mobile World Congress keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer plans to demo only a couple of features of the release, including improved multitasking, simultaneous game play with an Xbox as well as the addition of the company’s Internet Explorer 9 browser.

An earlier update, now due out by March, brings the long-awaited copy-and-paste features to the operating system as well as some performance tweaks and support for CDMA networks.

Windows Phone unit President Andy Lees told Mobilized that the new release later this year should answer critics who worried that Microsoft wouldn’t be able to innovate fast enough to catch up or leapfrog over features available on rivals such as iPhone and Android.

[ See post to watch video ]

“Part of what we are doing is sharing technology across the company,” Lees said in an interview. In other examples, Microsoft is showing a demo of how a user on the phone might play a game throwing balls at someone playing with an Xbox or Kinect. Microsoft also plans to allow sharing of Office documents directly between phones, Windows PCs and the cloud-based Windows Live service.

Moving the full IE9 browser over to the phone will allow for hardware acceleration and other features that had not been possible on phones in the past, Lees said. For battery and other reasons, Lees said that the new release won’t support Adobe’s Flash, but Lees said it is not a religious issue for him, and that the company may add such support down the road.

“We’re not allergic to Flash,” Lees said. “It’s not in this update, but we’re not making some particular statement that it will never be there.”

Microsoft also plans to announce that it will integrate Twitter into the People hub in much the same way that the initial release brings in Facebook updates.

The update later this year will be the one adopted by Nokia in its first Windows Phone, Lees said. Nokia announced last week, of course, that it plans to make Windows Phone its primary smartphone operating system going forward.

As for early reaction to the Nokia move, Lees said the response has been positive, both from mobile operators as well as from phone makers, even those that now find themselves with a new competitor.

Lees said that basically all of the companies that make Windows Phone devices also make phones for Android and have plenty of competition there as well. Lees said that, if anything, Nokia’s move could spur some device makers that were on the fence about supporting Windows Phone 7.

“We have had other [phone makers] approach us who were talking to us and have now increased their, should I say, level of focus,” Lees said.

As for Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s comments that the amount of money flowing to Nokia from Microsoft is measured in billions rather than in millions, Lees said that one must consider that the deal includes partnerships around search and services as well as the amount of marketing and other support being directly provided by Microsoft.

“We’re not talking about specifics,” Lees said. “But it’s a sizeable opportunity.”

Update: 4:00 pm Barcelona time: I finally made it in after being stuck in a massive crowd (see image). Ballmer’s keynote is slated to begin shortly and I’ll add live updates shortly.

4:06 pm: Ballmer has taken the stage, talking about rapid pace of change in industry and for Microsoft.

Talks about first update, the copy and paste one, which will come in first two weeks of March.

4:09 pm: Ballmer said most of smartphone competition the same–a “sea of icons” that lead to applications that lead to actions. Windows Phone is easier and simpler, he said. “With Windows Phone it’s easier to see information at a glance,” Ballmer said.

4:12 pm: On to new stuff, in the “near future in 2011, we will bring multitasking to Windows Phones” Ballmer said.

Ballmer is talking IE9. “We need to give people the full Web on their phone, like we do on the PC,” Ballmer said. (Wouldn’t that also include Flash, Mobilized wonders?)

4:15 pm: Apps are great, Ballmer said, but not enough. “It’s often too hard to find what you want when you want it,” he said. That, he said, is why Windows Phone also has task-specific hubs like People, Pictures, Office, Music and Video.

4:16 pm: Interesting note, Ballmer has again touted 93 percent customer satisfaction number, but no new sales figure.

4:19 pm: Windows Phone exec Joe Belfiore comes onstage to demo the new features coming to Windows Phone later this year.

4:26 pm: Both updates will be available for all Windows Phone 7 owners, Belfiore said.

4:30 pm: Belfiore showing an IE9 demo highlighting its hardware acceleration feature. In the demo, Belfiore shows IE9 for Windows Phone allowing 50 fish to rapidly swim around in an aquarium demo. He then shows the same demo on an iPhone 4 with the fish barely swimming.

4:32 pm: A few demoes fail. Streaming video doesn’t work because of connection issues. “This is preliminary not final code,” Belfiore said. “We’ll get all these kinks worked out.”

On to multitasking…

4:36 pm: Press-and-hold back button lets users access the new multitasking and see tiles for recently run apps.

Also shows Slacker playing with other tasks. Until now, only Microsoft’s own Zune could play in the background, not third-party apps.

4:39 pm: Last demo is the Xbox one showing Kinect game being played with the phone. Shows a “tech preview” of Windows Phone being used as a companion in Kinect’s dodgeball/breakout game.

4:42 pm: Ballmer back and talking about the ecosystems and Microsoft’s interaction with device makers and mobile operators as well as growth in the number of mobile apps for Windows Phone 7.

“We’re off to a strong start,” he said. “We know we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Ballmer said the company knows it needs both scale and variety.

4:44 pm: Now he’s talking Microsoft-Nokia deal.

4:47 pm: Ballmer invites out Nokia CEO Stephen Elop,

Elop calls the deal “a natural partnership,” in which Nokia will bring the global reach and scale that Microsoft needs, while giving Nokia a needed in back to the North American market, where it has struggled badly.

Elop repeats now well-worn point that Microsoft-Nokia will offer mobile operators a third viable choice to iPhone and Android.

4:51 pm: Ballmer makes the same point Lees made in our interview, arguing that the Nokia deal will even help other Windows Phone device makers by giving the ecosystem a needed level of scale.

“Today, customers are falling in love with Windows phones,” Ballmer said, adding that the company is investing to further popularize the phone, including new features.

Verizon iPhone Lines Inversely Proportional to Verizon iPhone Rumors

John Paczkowski — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:25:09 +0000

After the nearly interminable buildup to the iPhone’s launch on Verizon–the years of anticipation, rumors and speculation–you’d think the device’s official debut would be given a fervid reception by the folks clamoring for it. You’d think eager buyers would be camping out in front of their local Apple Store. You’d think Verizon Stores would literally be overrun with frustrated AT&T iPhone users looking for relief.

But evidently that’s not the case.

Pre-orders were huge, of course, cutting down the need for people to go out to a store, so early reports from around the country revealed a far more sedate response to a long-awaited event that ironically seems pretty uneventful. Fifteen minutes before the the Verizon iPhone went on sale, there were just eight people in line at Apple’s flagship store in New York, according to CNNMoney. At a lower-Manhattan Verizon store, 21 people queued up to buy the iPhone.

The scene was largely the same around the country, according to other reports: 20 folks at a Gainesville Verizon Store, 10 at another in Plainview, a dozen in Milwaukee, a “few dozen” in Lincoln, Neb.,. And before you the blame cold temperatures for the modest turnout, consider this: The line in front of Apple’s Stockton Street flagship store in San Francisco this morning was just two people long. Said News.com’s Marguerite Reardon, “Upon arriving here about five minutes (before the 7 a.m. opening of the store), there were literally more Apple Store employees, police officers and reporters–each–than people in line to buy iPhones.”

So, a pretty staid turnout for a device that’s generated such monomaniacal interest for so long. That said, it’s important to remember that Verizon isn’t launching the iPhone into a market with a vast untapped demand for it. In reality, most folks who absolutely had to have an iPhone bought one from AT&T. And those who refused to leave Verizon to do so likely pre-ordered one last week. In the end, the lines (or lack thereof) we’re seeing today have very little to do with how big a seller the iPhone will be for Verizon (and for proof of that, one need only look to foreign markets with multiple iPhone carriers). Sales estimates vary pretty widely, but many suggest Apple will sell between 9 million and 13 million iPhones through Verizon this year–a big boost no matter how you look at it. The big lines will return with the debut of iPhone 5.

PREVIOUSLY: Verizon’s iPhone Sales So Amazing They Can’t Even Put a Number On It

[Image Credit: Christine Bartolucci ]

Hello World (iPhone)

John Paczkowski — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:00:31 +0000

So those rumors that had Apple developing a “World iPad” based on one of Qualcomm’s multimode CDMA-GSM chips? There may be something to them after all.

An iFixit teardown of the CDMA iPhone 4 headed for Verizon reveals a world mode chip in the device’s innards: Qualcomm’s MDM6600, which supports CDMA and EVDO network standards as well as GSM and HSPA+. It’s the same chip used in the Droid Pro, Motorola’s “global ready” Android phone.

In other words, Verizon’s CDMA iPhone isn’t a world phone–but it could have been, given a SIM card and some additional engineering. Which makes it likely that the next iteration of the iPhone will be. And if iPhone 5 proves to be global ready, iPad 2 likely will be as well, as Wedge analyst Brian Blair, who first floated the idea of the World iPad, notes.

“This is the proof of my thesis, I think,” he said of iFixit’s findings. “This is a dual–band GSM/CDMA chip that I believe will not only be in a “World iPad” in April as I mentioned last Fall but I also expect it will be in the new iPhone 5 in June. It makes sense for many reasons: but the main one is that Apple engineers will only have to design a product one time, same guts and parts for GSM as for CDMA.”

[Image credit: iFixit]

Verizon iPhone Has New Antenna Design

Andrew Morse and Don Clark — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:04:35 +0000

Apple Inc.’s iPhone for the Verizon Wireless network contains a newly designed version of the antenna that was associated with dropped calls on the original device, according to a company that disassembled the handset.

The new iPhone 4 model, as expected, also includes a chip from Qualcomm Inc. that allows the device to work on Verizon’s network, which is based on a technology called CDMA, or code division multiple access. But iFixit, a gadget repair site in San Luis Obispo, Calif., found that Apple selected a chip model from Qualcomm that can support multiple wireless technologies.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

2011 Forecast Calls for 76 Million iPhones With Chance of 32 Million iPads

John Paczkowski — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:18:23 +0000

With the hard launch of the CDMA iPhone at Verizon now just three days away, analysts are tweaking their sales forecasts to reflect its impact. The latest to issue an upward revision: Susquehanna’s Jeff Fidacaro, who raised his price target on Apple this morning to reflect strong pre-sale demand for the Verizon iPhone and a significant increase in its production.

“Our proprietary checks in Apple’s supply chain suggest slight increases to our production forecasts for CY1Q11,” Fidacaro said in a note to clients today. “Our read on CDMA iPhone production shows a ramp up from prior forecasts and positive revisions for the GSM iPhone as well. Early indications from the Verizon presale of the CDMA iPhone were [also] strong. Thus, we are raising our iPhone shipment estimates substantially.”

Fidacaro had been looking for Apple to ship 17.7 million iPhones in the March quarter and 70.5 million in fiscal 2011. Now he’s forecasting 19.8 million and 76.7 million–a 92 percent increase year-over-year.

That, along with a significant upward revision to his iPad shipment estimates, driven by the presumed debut of iPad 2–32.1 million in fiscal 2011, up from 27.3 million (a 330 percent increase year-over-year)–prompted Fidacaro to raise his price target on Apple to $465 from $445.

Spare change for Apple shares?

Verizon to Butcher Speeds of Data Hogs

John Paczkowski — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:00:26 +0000

What an odd coincidence. Verizon Wireless introduced a new policy today that gives it the right to throttle the data speeds of its heaviest bandwidth users–just as it began accepting pre-orders for the new CDMA iPhone.

The policy is effective immediately and is intended to ensure that average data users aren’t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users. Says Verizon, “If you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand.”

What constitutes an “extraordinary amount of data”? Verizon doesn’t say, but I’m sure its subscribers will know it when they hit it, because their speeds will drop for almost two billing cycles.

And to think that just a few weeks ago, Verizon was talking up its plan to offer iPhone buyers a $30 unlimited data plan. Evidently it applies to the amount of data only, not the rate at which it’s downloaded.

Verizon says the shift in policy has nothing to do with the looming debut of the iPhone (“There’s nothing magic about the timing.”), which is widely known to tax carrier networks. But the timing here makes it hard to believe. This is Verizon bracing itself for the iPhone data deluge.

Verizon Upholds Tradition of Bumpy iPhone Launch

John Paczkowski — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:30:03 +0000

“We’ve been working on this for a very long time. We expect unprecedented demand, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before. We feel good about being able to handle it.”

– John Stratton, Verizon Wireless COO.

AT&T must be snickering into its cornflakes this morning (okay, perhaps it’s more of a hollow chuckle). Verizon began taking pre-orders for the forthcoming CDMA iPhone this morning and is suffering some of the same issues for which AT&T has been taken to task in the past (though AT&T’s problems were substantially more severe).

I received multiple reports from eager buyers whose purchase attempts were thwarted by infuriatingly slow page loads and/or error messages. Twitter is full of similar notes. This despite Verizon’s claim that the iPhone’s launch on its network would go flawlessly. “We are not going to have any flaws on the execution of the iPhone launch,” Fran Shammo, president and CEO of Verizon’s telecom and business unit, said ealier this year. “We’ve been preparing the network for the last year anticipating the launch of the iPhone.”

Well, perhaps a few flaws, as Verizon Wireless conceded this morning. Still, nowhere near as bad as the ones that troubled AT&T, which had to issue a formal apology.

“We have been processing orders all morning and most customers are not experiencing problems,” spokesperson Brenda Raney told me. “On balance this has been a smooth availability launch. In instances where customers get an error message, they tend to be specific to that individual versus a system wide issue. For example, if customers on a Family SharePlan log in and use a mobile number other than the one belonging to the primary account holder, they will get an error message. We are working to address that now.”

Of course, “on balance” doesn’t help if you are the one who has waited for years for the Verizon iPhone and find yourself unable to order one.

PREVIOUSLY:

AT&T Now Dropping iPhone Calls and iPhone 4 Pre-Orders

Apple: Sorry We Sold So Many iPhone 4s Yesterday

Time to Cut AT&T Some Slack, iPhone Users?

[Error Image Credit: Business Insider]

Interview: T-Mobile CEO Philip Humm Embraces Role as Challenger to Verizon, Sprint and ATT

Ina Fried — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:30:40 +0000

When Philip Humm meets with the other CEOs of T-Mobile subsidiaries, he is often the odd man out. While the others can boast of their 30 percent market share and compare notes on how their iPhone is selling, Humm can’t really relate.

T-Mobile has a fraction of that market share and no iPhone to speak of. Instead, T-Mobile USA is trying to operate as a feisty underdog. It’s a role that Humm said he not only relishes, but one that is also a natural fit for his company, which was born with the 2001 acquisition of VoiceStream, a scrappy regional carrier.

“The organization is going back to its roots,” he said in an interview last week. “VoiceStream and later T-Mobile really started in the market as a challenger. They started with big buckets of minutes at the time and later with unlimited minutes. These are things which, in a sense, are coming back now.”

While Verizon and AT&T are shifting away from unlimited plans and Sprint is hiking the cost for smartphone data rates, T-Mobile says it plans to offer lower rates in an effort to win back market share. From its $10 entry-level data rates to unlimited family plans that can save hundreds of dollars per year, Humm said the company is putting its money where its mouth is.

“We are a very good value,” Humm said.

But before Humm can win over customers, he knows he must start with the company’s own employees, some of whom became disenchanted as their company saw itself slow to move to faster networks and embrace the latest technologies.

Humm is currently traveling around the U.S., spending each Wednesday through Friday from now until April meeting with workers in different key markets.

“In the beginning of the week I pick up my job slip from my assistant,” he said. “[I learn] ‘Where do I have to fly this week?’” Last week he stopped in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. This week he is due in Texas.

In each city, Humm outlines the plan and shows off the company’s combative ads, which feature a young man as the iPhone, hobbled by the slow speed of its networks. T-Mobile, meanwhile, is a beautiful young woman, riding fast and free on T-Mobile’s network. So far, he said, the message has resonated with the company’s employees.

There is more to do than just cut prices. In the absence of an iPhone, T-Mobile needs to do a better job of embracing Android, he said. And that doesn’t necessarily mean doing a lot of customization work, as it and others have tried to do, or spending a fortune building its own brand, as Verizon has done. Humm said that T-Mobile can have a good Android strategy, in part by just being open and quickly adopting the work done by Google and others.

“It is key for us to maintain the strong relationship we have with Google and to be very fast with Google, testing and then launching improved operating systems,” Humm said. “I don’t think it is our most important duty to really tailor all the things in a complicated way.”

One of the areas for improvement in the market is just staying current with Google, both with new updates and in offering timely upgrades for existing customers. The company is in the process of launching a new program called Reinvent, Humm said, that will do just that.

T-Mobile is also working aggressively to speed up its networks. Although it lacks the spectrum to immediately move to an all-new technology like the Long-Term Evolution network being adopted by Verizon and planned by AT&T, T-Mobile is working quickly to roll out faster versions of its existing network. That solution may only be a stop-gap, but it can offer some pretty good speeds for the next couple of years, anyway.

The company also wants to embrace new categories of devices, such as tablets. The company plans to have a 7-inch Dell Streak very soon, to be followed by a Honeycomb-based tablet from LG.

“I do not see a reason why a customer should not have two devices minimum,” Humm said. However, that is tricky when doing so requires two separate data plans and tablets require customers to plunk down $500 or $600 on top of whatever they paid for their smartphone. Lowering the up-front and monthly costs is key to broad adoption of multiple cellular-equipped devices, Humm said.

And it’s not that Humm wouldn’t like one of the options to be an iPhone.

“We never said that we would not like to have an iPhone,” he said. “We think the iPhone is a great and iconic device.”

He notes that the company has been very clear to go after the companies offering the iPhone and their networks, rather than against the iPhone itself.

“The potential of the iPhone is by no means realized on the network it is running,” Humm said, adding that things won’t improve when it comes to Verizon because it will run only on that carrier’s older CDMA network.

As for when or if the iPhone might ever come to T-Mobile USA, though, Humm has no answers.

“It really is a question to ask Apple,” he said.

Dispatches From the Supply Line Stoke iPad, iPhone Chatter

John Paczkowski — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:44:53 +0000

With the first-year anniversaries of the iPad and iPhone 4 fast approaching, and both devices destined for an update per Apple’s annual mobile device refresh cycle, the Apple rumor mill is undergoing a refresh of its own.

Supply chain sources tell China’s Economic Daily News that Apple has lined up four new component suppliers for the iPhone 5, which they claim is scheduled for a summer launch. Meanwhile, Taiwanese trade pub DigiTimes is reporting that Apple recently bolstered its printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain in preparation for the next iteration of the iPad. Where the company once used just three PCB suppliers for the device, it’s now using seven. Not a surprise, really, given the 14.8 million iPads Apple sold in 2010. DigiTimes’ sources claim they’re scheduled to begin small-volume shipments next month, before going all out in April. Which jibes nicely with that annual refresh cycle I mentioned earlier and rumors of a spring launch.

As I’ve noted here before, the iPad 2 is expected to be thinner than its predecessor and manufactured with the same unibody approach Apple’s been using for the MacBook. It’s also expected to feature an LCD backlit display, a front-facing camera and Facetime video chat support. Finally, some reports suggest it is powered by one of Qualcomm’s multimode chips and will run on both GSM and CDMA-based networks around the world.

Sprint: Collateral Damage in the Verizon-AT&T iPhone War

John Paczkowski — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:30:36 +0000

So much for Sprint’s tentative comeback. The company’s no longer hemorrhaging subscribers and money like Dan Aykroyd’s exsanguinating Julia Child, as I once joked–at least not as badly as it was. But that could change now that Apple has added Verizon as a second iPhone carrier in the States.

Not only will the Verizon iPhone likely draw new wireless subscribers away from Sprint (and T-Mobile, for that matter), it will boost its churn rate as well. Compounding that effect will be AT&T’s reaction to its loss of iPhone exclusivity and its efforts to hold on to subscribers it fears might defect to Verizon. As Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffet noted today, AT&T’s not going to stand idly by as Verizon woos away its customers.

“Already in 2Q and 3Q 2010, AT&T partially pre-empted Verizon’s iPhone introduction by upgrading a massive number of its iPhone subscribers, so as to lock them into new 2-year contracts,” Moffet observed in a note to clients today. “This amounts to a massive re-subsidization of existing subscribers, sacrificing margins for subscriber retention. When the actual iPhone introduction at Verizon occurs, AT&T is likely to react further, with more aggressive phone subsidies, incremental advertising, the introduction of other compelling devices, and possibly with price cuts.”

And when it does, Sprint’s share of industry gross additions will inevitably decline.

There’s a wild card here, though: The special event that Sprint has planned for February. If what the company shows off there truly is the industry first it’s promising (and let’s be clear: It’s almost certainly not going to be another CDMA iPhone), perhaps it will indeed make the “impossible possible”–helping Sprint limit subscriber churn in the face of the Verizon iPhone.

When That Call Comes In, an iPhone Hotspot Is Not So Hot

Ina Fried — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:47:52 +0000

Don’t get me wrong–the addition of a mobile hotspot feature on the Verizon iPhone is a notable benefit.

However, those ready to throw away their MiFi should remember that there’s an important caveat: Because the CDMA network doesn’t handle voice and data at the same time, the hotspot works only when you aren’t talking on your iPhone.

If a call comes in while people are connected to the iPhone-created hotspot, data access ends until the call is done.

Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that Boy Genius Report says that the hotspot may not remain a Verizon exclusive. The enthusiast site says that the next version of the iPhone operating system will add support for the hotspot feature. However, to actually be used in such a manner, hotspot capability will also have to be enabled by one’s wireless carrier.

AT&T iPhone customers will certainly remember that the iPhone supported tethering to a computer well before the company enabled the feature for its customers.

An AT&T representative said the company is “exploring” the possibility of such a feature but declined to comment further.

Analysts Go Out on Limb, Predict Verizon iPhone Will Be Big for Apple

John Paczkowski — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:41:57 +0000

Verizon’s announcement of the forthcoming debut of Apple’s iPhone on its network this morning was met with a flurry of analyst notes all saying exactly the same thing: 2011 is going to be a very, very strong year for the iPhone.

After all, the CDMA iPhone Apple’s built for Verizon promises to expand the company’s addressable market domestically and abroad. The device isn’t exclusive to Verizon, which means Apple’s almost certainly going to pursue additional partnerships with CDMA carries in other parts of the world– China Telecom and SK Telecom, for example.

“We see this as the single biggest lever Apple has to pull in calendar 2011,” said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who raised his iPhone unit estimates by 2.5 million because of the Verizon deal.

JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz took a similar view, suggesting that the Verizon iPhone could boost Apple’s EPS by at least $1.25 per annum. “For Apple, we believe that this new carrier relationship will be a major catalyst for U.S.-related iPhone sales over the next 18-24 months,” he wrote. “In our view, Verizon’s wireless network offers a higher quality user experience compared to AT&T’s. We expect that this dynamic will drive a significant numbers of subscribers to switch to Verizon, in addition to the adoption rate of the iPhone by existing Verizon subscribers.”

At Standard & Poor’s, Clyde Montevirgen wrote that the deal more than doubles Apple’s U.S. market opportunity and said he expects incremental unit sales of 7 million via Verizon in calendar 2011.

UBS analyst Maynard Um issued this bullish call: “Apple has set itself up for a solid year of iPhone sales. Today’s agreement with Verizon Wireless should provide additional momentum to already strong iPhone unit growth. We also expect the company to launch the iPhone 5 this summer which would serve as another catalyst for this product segment. We currently expect AAPL to ship 67.3mn iPhone units in CY11.”

And finally, over at William Blair, analyst Brian Nugent offered a few observations about the Verizon iPhone’s effects on other industry players (beyond AT&T), specifically Research in Motion and Qualcomm. For RIM, he views it as a clear negative. “While dependence on Verizon has declined significantly in the last year, Verizon still accounts for roughly 10% of RIM’s sales (by our estimate),” he said. “An iPhone at Verizon will further pressure RIM’s market share and net subscriber additions in the United States, and could hurt its average selling prices and gross margin.”

But for Qualcomm, it’s a boon. “Although we view the introduction of the iPhone at Verizon as positive for Qualcomm (which we believe is the baseband provider in the iPhone), given that Qualcomm has over 95% of Verizon baseband share, today’s announcement may not be material to the company in the near term,” he said. “On a longer-term basis, we view today’s announcement as the beginning of a closer working relationship between Apple and Qualcomm that may potentially extend beyond the Verizon handset deal.”

PREVIOUSLY:

AT&T: Verizon iPhone? Whatever.

Verizon iPhone: What, AT&T Worry?

Why Verizon’s iPhone Won’t Be So Bad for RIM

How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

AT&T: Verizon iPhone? Whatever.

John Paczkowski — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:45:11 +0000

AT&T was quick to react to Verizon’s iPhone announcement, though it wasted very few words on it.

“For iPhone users who want the fastest speeds, the ability to talk and use apps at the same time, and unsurpassed global coverage, the only choice is AT&T,” the company said in a terse e-mailed statement, stressing the differences between the two companies’ networks. Remember, AT&T’s UMTS network allows the use of data and voice simultaneously. Verizon’s CMDA network doesn’t–at least not yet. So, initially, Verizon iPhone users won’t be able to use the Web or check email while on a call–something AT&T iPhone users have long been able to do.

Here’s Apple COO Tim Cook giving a non-answer to a question about the data/voice issue. Or rather, the same answer he gave throughout the event: Verizon customers really want the iPhone.

Translation: You guys wanted a Verizon iPhone and now you have one. Ok? Now stop whining and leave me alone.

[ See post to watch video ]

PREVIOUSLY:

AT&T: Verizon iPhone? Whatever.

Verizon iPhone: What, AT&T Worry?

Why Verizon’s iPhone Won’t Be So Bad for RIM

How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

The Biggest Surprise About the Verizon iPhone: It's a Mobile Hotspot

Ina Fried — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:24:47 +0000

There weren’t a ton of surprises with the Verizon iPhone. In most respects it is identical to the iPhone 4, though it does feature a slightly different antenna design than the one configured for AT&T. Verizon’s version has four notches in its external antenna–one more than AT&T’s. Evidently, that was an adjustment made for Verizon’s CDMA network and not a new fix for the problems that gave rise to antennagate.

It’s running on Verizon’s older CDMA network and not the new 4G LTE network nor is it a so-called “world phone” that can run on GSM networks in other countries.

The biggest deal so far is that it can act as a mobile hotspot, allowing several PCs or devices to share its wireless connection. It can connect up to five devices.

Verizon said it won’t reveal service pricing for the iPhone or how much the hotspot service will add, if indeed there is an additional charge.

Update: 12:15 p.m. ET: A Verizon representative said that the company always charges extra for the hotspot feature, though it is not detailing if pricing will differ for the iPhone 4. The company currently charges $20 a month for 2GB of data for using its phones as Wi-Fi hotspots.

As for the feature itself, it is located as an option under the iPhone settings menu.

Three Things to Watch For at Verizon iPhoneapalooza

Ina Fried — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:06:05 +0000

Although there doesn’t seem to be much mystery about what will be unveiled on Tuesday, there are some important details not yet known about the inaugural Verizon iPhone.

4G or 3G, World phone or CDMA-only?
A key question is which networks the Verizon iPhone will support. Supporting the carrier’s 4G network could help the Verizon iPhone get faster data and make calls and receive data at the same time, but would also likely drive up the cost and hurt battery life. As Apple has in the past been content to let other phone makers be the first on a given network, many analysts expect this iPhone not to support Verizon’s just introduced–and still limited–LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network. Also, will Verizon and Apple have accepted the added cost to build in support for non-U.S. networks to allow the phone to work in countries that don’t support Verizon’s CDMA technology?
What features distinguish the Verizon iPhone from the iPhone 4?
Although many expect the Verizon iPhone to largely resemble the iPhone 4, it is unlikely to be a clone of its AT&T sibling. The differences will shape the battleground between AT&T and Verizon as the two battle over current and future iPhone customers. Unlimited data use appears to be one thing in the Verizon iPhone’s favor. Network speed could go either way, depending on whether there is 4G support in the Verizon device.
Details, details, details.
How much will the phone cost? Will current Verizon customers be able to switch to the iPhone for the same price as new customers? What about those who have recently bought another phone–will they have to wait until their full contract is up? Will Verizon have managed to get any of its apps pre-loaded. There are all kinds of fun little details that should give us pixel-stained wretches plenty to get all lathered up about. And oh yeah, when can everyone get their hot little hands on the darn thing?

For answers to all this and more, AllThingsD will have live coverage starting just before 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT.

Verizon iPhone: What, AT&T Worry?

John Paczkowski — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:11:43 +0000

Another question to ponder on the eve of the iPhone’s debut on Verizon: Now that its archrival has the device on which it once had an exclusive, a device that has done so much for its bottom line, how will AT&T respond?

Or, rather, how has it been responding? Because it’s clear the company has been preparing for this moment for some time. Last year, it accelerated upgrade eligibility for iPhone customers, making it easier for them to get the iPhone 4 when Apple released it. And it locked them all into two-year contracts in the process. And then, last week, it drastically reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS, halving it to $49 from $99.

Presumably, AT&T could follow this with additional pricing promotions that could further limit iPhone subscriber defections to Verizon, though at this point one could argue that it’s as well prepared for its loss of iPhone exclusivity as it will ever be.

Why? Two big reasons:

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen, nearly 80 percent of AT&T iPhone users are currently on family or corporate plans, which makes switching to a new carrier a difficult proposition.
Approximately 75 percent of them still have at least a year left on their contracts.

And there’s a third wild-card reason as well: How Verizon’s network fares after a big influx of data-heavy iPhone subscribers. That’s tough to predict, but two analysts I’ve spoken with said they expect Verizon to suffer some network growing pains, though not as bad as the ones suffered by AT&T. Ultimately, Verizon is starting off with a better network, and CDMA is said to be a more spectrally efficient standard than UMTS.

So will there be some AT&T subscribers who switch to Verizon when it begins selling the iPhone? Certainly. But they may not be nearly as large in number as you might think.

“AT&T has done everything it can,” Needham and Co. analyst Charlie Wolf told me this morning. “The company locked in a lot of iPhone owners by waiving early termination fees last summer. It’s moved aggressively to add a bunch of BlackBerrys and Android phones. And it should be remembered that AT&T will continue to sell the iPhone. So I doubt that the loss of subscribers to Verizon will be that large. But it could be material as it pertains to the bragging rights between AT&T and Verizon. “

PREVIOUSLY:

Why Verizon’s iPhone Won’t Be So Bad for RIM

How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?

Ina Fried — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:00:22 +0000

Most people expect the Verizon iPhone to be pretty similar to the current iPhone 4 sold by AT&T–but even if that is the case, it may differ in some important ways.

First and foremost, it will be on Verizon’s network, which Verizon loyalists and iPhone holdouts certainly hope will mean better calls. I think this will be an interesting test in general to see which of the iPhone’s shortcomings are its own and which can really be blamed on AT&T.

Of course, the Verizon iPhone may also benefit from lessons learned from the iPhone 4, and that makes an improved antenna more likely.

The Verizon iPhone might also be available in white–something promised, but not yet delivered, for the iPhone 4.

Less likely, but still possible is that the Verizon iPhone might have the ability to act as a portable hotspot, a popular feature on competing super-duper smartphones.

Also of note will be to see which networks the Verizon iPhone supports. While designed for Verizon’s networks, it may also have the necessary radios to act as a world phone when traveling outside the reaches of CDMA.

It also matters a great deal which Verizon network it works on. Support for Verizon’s 4G LTE-based network would increase cost and lower battery life, but have benefits beyond faster data speed. It would also allow Verizon a workaround for one of the CDMA network’s biggest limitations–the inability to mix voice and data at the same time.

PREVIOUSLY:

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

John Paczkowski — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:16:10 +0000

Verizon Wireless will hold an event in New York tomorrow where, as we first reported here, it will announce the availability of Apple’s iPhone on its network. And when it does, it will halt once and for all the near-pathological Verizon iPhone speculation that preceded it.

But only because those who speculated about the existence of a Verizon iPhone have been struck by a new monomania: Speculating about first-year Verizon iPhone sales numbers.

Indeed, the sales estimates are already rolling out, with the consensus so far hovering between nine million and 12 milion.

“Some think 10 million is possible in the calendar year,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told me. “And I think it’s a reasonable assumption–not just because of what we’ve seen on AT&T but because you have three years of pent-up demand from users who are loyal to the Verizon network because of its coverage and reliability.”

Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall agrees, though he’s betting on sales hitting the top end of the range I mentioned.

“The iPhone on Verizon will sell 12 million units in calendar 2011 assuming there’s a ramp-up similar to the one AT&T experienced in 2007-2008 (i.e., 5 percent penetration of the postpaid subscriber base within five quarters of launch),” he told me, adding that AT&T will see a material decline in its iPhone sales as a result.

Taking a more conservative view of the iPhone’s prospects on Verizon is Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who expects Verizon to activate roughly 25 million smartphones in calendar 2011, of which nine million will be iPhones.

Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe too is betting on that nine-million figure, and of those he expects approximately 500,000 to one million to be purchased by AT&T switchers. Said Ratcliffe, “We don’t believe that the addition of a Verizon iPhone will be a seismic event in the wireless competitive environment, although we do expect it to result in a modest spike in AT&T churn, as customers who love their iPhones but have become unhappy with AT&T’s network take advantage of the alternative.”

PREVIOUSLY:

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

John Paczkowski — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:05:15 +0000

When the iPhone finally arrives on Verizon’s network, how will the carrier set it apart from the one that’s been offered by AT&T since it first debuted in 2007?

Here’s one way: By offering it with a wireless service plan free of the data caps used by AT&T.

Sources close to Verizon tell me the carrier will offer the iPhone with an unlimited data plan (presumably the same $30 unlimited plan it offers for other smartphones)–though they wouldn’t say for how long. That should distinguish it a bit more from the iPhone on AT&T, which requires a capped plan for data service.

Not that such differences worry AT&T any. “We think customers will prefer AT&T’s faster speeds and better functionality over a CDMA network device,” a spokesperson told me. And he has a point. AT&T’s UMTS network allows the use of data and voice simultaneously. Verizon’s CMDA network doesn’t–at least not yet. So, initially, Verizon iPhone users won’t be able to use the Web or check email while on a call–something AT&T iPhone users have long been able to do.

All Things D reported Friday that the special event Verizon is holding in New York Tuesday will be the carrier’s long-rumored iPhone announcement.

PREVIOUSLY:

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Qualcomm Makes It Official, Grabs Atheros for $3.1 Billion

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:42:04 +0000

Qualcomm, the chipmaker devoted to the wireless handset business, announced today the first major tech acquisition of the year, and the biggest deal in its history, saying it will pay $3.1 billion in cash for Atheros, a chipmaker whose business is in wireless networking.

As I noted yesterday, there are lots of reasons for Qualcomm to want Atheros, not the least of which is its extensive customer list.

Qualcomm’s specialty has always been in CDMA technology, the flavor of mobile phone technology favored by Verizon Wireless and Sprint, and it collects considerable royalties around its patent portfolio there. It has struggled to penetrate other markets, and last year shuttered its FloTV operation amid minimal demand. The good news was that it sold its FloTV spectrum to AT&T for $1.93 billion, which is no doubt offsetting the cost of this deal. Add that to the $10.3 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet as of Sept. 26 and this is an easy deal to do.

It’s also the biggest deal in Qualcomm’s history and the first significant one under CEO Paul Jacobs, who is the son of founder Irwin Jacobs.

Atheros shareholders have plenty of reasons to smile today as well. The company’s stock price surged by 19 percent yesterday. At $45 a share, Qualcomm is paying more than Atheros has ever been worth in its entire history as a publicly held company. As Shira Ovide over at Deal Journal notes, its highest price before yesterday was $43.90. Happy New Year, indeed.

I caught up with Qualcomm Executive Vice President Steve Mollenkopf and Atheros CEO Craig Barratt to talk about the deal.

NewEnterprise: Steve, let’s start with you. What got Qualcomm interested in Atheros?

Mollenkopf: Historically Qualcomm has been focused on the cellular phone, though recently we’ve done much more than that. We had some integration relationships with some companies that allow us to deliver a platform to our customers. They’re essentially technical relationships, and one of those companies was Atheros. So we were familiar with them. But the real reason, the why Atheros and why now question comes down to this. We think the industry is moving to a place where a lot of the technology and use cases that are being created as part of the shift to smartphones will be used outside of just phones, and will move into many adjacent spaces. The requirement of technology and different customers overlap a lot with Atheros. They’re a leader in their space, we’re a leader in ours and we want to go into markets that will require the expertise from both of us. It seemed natural, actually.

Craig, the idea for the acquisition seems to have grown out of an existing partnership. When did the talk turn from being Qualcomm’s partner to becoming part of Qualcomm?

Barratt: The partnership has gone on for about five years, where we’ve cooperated on joint reference and designs and software and feature integration. Over the years we’ve broadened out from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, powerline and optical networking. We do have a much more horizontal business. Qualcomm has a very strong vertical business. Through our partnership we saw the teams had a good cultural fit, the engineering teams really respect each other. When we looked at our own strategic imperatives over the long term, we saw that cellular technologies are going to be applied in a much broader markets over time, beyond just smartphones and tablets. There’s an intersection between the Qualcomm technology and our technology, and that’s only going to increase. You’ve probably heard that set-top boxes and things like that are going to start to run Android. So a lot of these mobile technologies are going to start showing up in things like the connected home. Strategically it all started to make sense.

And what will your new job be at Qualcomm?

Barratt: After the acquisition closes, which should be in the first half of 2011, my role will be president of Qualcomm Networking and Connectivity, reporting to Steve.

Steve, if I’m not mistaken, this is the biggest deal that Qualcomm has ever done.

Mollenkopf: You’re correct. For us on the Qualcomm side this is a big step toward expanding our business beyond our traditional platform business and we’re doing it in a way that is in line with how the industry is changing. A lot of the things we’ve been doing with Atheros are things we’ve already been doing as part of our relationship, so this is a natural next step.