How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years • Hacker News Board

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#61

Post by mason55 » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:12 PM UTC

zeveb wrote: post #10

Veen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean Apple owns and runs an App Store, then yes, but that’s not a monopoly. It’s just a store that they control. Would you say that their physical stores are a monopoly that they abuse by not selling samsung phones?

> If you mean Apple owns and runs an App Store, then yes, but that’s not a monopoly. They also refuse to permit their customers to run apps not approved by Apple on the phones they have bought. That's the monopoly.

Huh? That’s still not a monopoly. Argue that they’re violating anti-consumers laws to have access to device you purchased, sure, but what you’re describing is in no way a monopoly.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#62

Post by neckeri » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:14 PM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #59

sundvor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Store, in their ios ecosystem.

Jeep doesn’t allow me to install my own apps on Uconnect. I guess they are a monopoly. Sirius, Apple, and Android are 3rd party products that are allowed on Uconnect but not my own.

Boy GM is really raking it in from UConnect. Everyone's complaining about their monopolistic practices.

Last checking GM's share price it was barely a composition of their revenue.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#63

Post by guardiangod » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:15 PM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #52

macspoofing wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they really 'strangle the company'? Blackberry had a meteroic rise and they collapsed because of iPhone and (later) Android.

After reading about it particularly "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry", I think guardiangod is correct, but also Verizon and, to a much lesser extent, the whole stock dating scandal. If Verizon hadn't been so gun-ho for an iPhone killer, Blackberry would probably of got to something like the Passport a whole lot faster. They needed to stay in their l…

I can't get into details, but basically I agree with you. The Storm...was a product of many compromises. But it's only the start of a series of decisions that...

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#64

Post by matz1 » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:19 PM UTC

village-idiot wrote: post #29

sundvor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Store, in their ios ecosystem.

That’s like complaining that IKEA has a monopoly within IKEA stores.

If they are big enough then yes it can be a monopoly too.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#65

Post by AnthonyMouse » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:19 PM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #59

sundvor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Store, in their ios ecosystem.

Jeep doesn’t allow me to install my own apps on Uconnect. I guess they are a monopoly. Sirius, Apple, and Android are 3rd party products that are allowed on Uconnect but not my own.

> Jeep doesn’t allow me to install my own apps on Uconnect. I guess they are a monopoly.

Why wouldn't they be? Does someone else compete with them for distributing apps on Uconnect? Can you install Ford Sync apps on your Jeep?

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#66

Post by sriram_sun » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

guardiangod wrote: post #19

As a former worker at Blackberry(RIM) cellular chip division (hello fellow RCT-ees), this article explains so much it physically hurts me. RIM pushed hard to develop its own chip 3G/4G chips because Qualcomm absolutely strangled the company with its licensing cost/terms. They pretty much demanded a separate cellular R&D team (QCT) that duplicates half the effort. All CDMA based phones must contain chips from QCT beca…

I know one person who works in that team. Said he was driving to lunch and heard the news that Apple and Qualcomm had reached a deal. So he buys a few Qualcomm shares (he sold them at peak!), gets back to work and then this e-mail shows up saying Intel is getting out of the 5G modem business. I'm paraphrasing here: "The sight of a whole floor of heads popping up from their cubes at the same time... what an experience!"

So everyone there is hoping that Apple buys them out.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#67

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#68

Post by tooltalk » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:23 PM UTC

guardiangod wrote: post #19

As a former worker at Blackberry(RIM) cellular chip division (hello fellow RCT-ees), this article explains so much it physically hurts me. RIM pushed hard to develop its own chip 3G/4G chips because Qualcomm absolutely strangled the company with its licensing cost/terms. They pretty much demanded a separate cellular R&D team (QCT) that duplicates half the effort. All CDMA based phones must contain chips from QCT beca…

> Qualcomm holds CDMA patents and they won't license them to anyone

I thought chip-makers weren't required to license QCOM's patents -- QCOM like all other wireless SEP holders only collect licenses at system-level.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#69

Post by protomyth » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:23 PM UTC

guardiangod wrote: post #63

protomyth wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading about it particularly "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry", I think guardiangod is correct, but also Verizon and, to a much lesser extent, the whole stock dating scandal. If Verizon hadn't been so gun-ho for an iPhone killer, Blackberry would probably of got to something like the Passport a whole lot faster. They needed to stay in their l…

I can't get into details, but basically I agree with you. The Storm...was a product of many compromises. But it's only the start of a series of decisions that...

I dearly wish someone would explain the whole idea of why Blackberry built the Playbook. It seems like a product that was so forced with such a confusing development story.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#70

Post by tareqak » Thu, May 30, 2019, 11:25 PM UTC

bsder wrote: post #46

Is Qualcomm a ruthless monopolist? Yep. But what people forget is that EVERYBODY was knifing one another in that space when CDMA originally came out. The only difference is that Qualcomm is the ruthless monopolist that won. In addition, while I have no love lost for Qualcomm, what you do have to remember is that CDMA was a "bet the farm" moment. If CDMA could be delivered, it was significantly better than what existe…

What other corporation requires paying to license their patent portfolio in order to be allowed buy their products? I don't have to pay for a license from McDonald's to eat their burger. I'm not an expert in this domain, so there might be more relevant example.

Update: fixed up my wording.