Qualcomm

Phone forecast calls for sales decline in 2009

By Scott Moritz

With clouds of economic gloom darkening the tech horizon, mobile phone sales - a former bright spot in the gadget world - look to be slowing.

Tech buyers went away early this fall, and as recession fears intensified, orders have continued to dry up.

There have been a number of ominous signs. First Cisco (CSCO) slashed its outlook and froze hiring. Then Wall Street analysts slashed Google's (GOOG) search ad sales MORE

Qualcomm hit by the slowdown

By Scott Moritz

Qualcomm (QCOM) joined tech's growing crowd of downward revisionists as the slumping global economy forced the company to slash its financial targets.

While the San Diego wireless chipmaker turned in a strong fiscal fourth quarter Thursday, Qualcomm like several tech giants - including Cisco (CSCO), Intel (INTC) and Apple (AAPL) - have lowered financial projections as business took a nose dive this fall.

Qualcomm posted adjusted earnings of $1.06 billion or MORE

Motorola delays breakup, cuts jobs

By Scott Moritz

Motorola on Thursday said its plan to break up into two companies is on hold, leading the head of its mobile phone business to outline a new plan for reviving the company's ailing handset business.

Part of the restructuring plan includes the loss of 3,000 jobs, most from the mobile phone division, a company representative confirmed.

Motorola (MOT), which reported third quarter earnings that beat profit estimates but missed sales targets, said the split up called for MORE

Nokia's 'iPhone killer' a 2009 event

By Scott Moritz

With touchscreen phones all the rage, and U.S. telcos following AT&T's (T) lead of cutting the price of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, it would seem Nokia (NOK) will be left out of the smartphone party this year.

The Finnish phone giant won't have its closely-watched 5800 phone - Nokia's music-loaded take on the iPhone - available here until sometime in the first half of next year, according to people familiar with the phone. MORE

AT&T launching mobile TV service, but who will watch?

By Michal Lev-Ram

America is known as a nation of TV watchers, but viewers have not embraced the small screen as enthusiastically as they have the big one in their living room.

Just 4.6% of U.S. wireless customers have watched TV or videos on their cell phone, according to research firm M:Metrics. Verizon Wireless (VZ) has yet to release subscriber numbers for a mobile TV offering it launched last year, but Paul MORE

Wireless spectrum auction comes to a close

By Michal Lev-Ram

After nearly eight weeks and 261 rounds of bidding, the government's spectrum auction finally ended Tuesday.

In January,  the Federal Communications Commission began auctioning off the coveted 700MHz spectrum, which is particularly suited for broadband services and is the last major chunk of nationwide spectrum.  The FCC had hoped to raise at least $10 billion from the auction, but as the last bid came in late Tuesday the total MORE

Spectrum auction kicks off in dismal market

By Michal Lev-Ram

This is not exactly the best week to kick off a multi-billion dollar wireless spectrum auction, what with the markets melting down and tech stocks like Google, Sprint, Motorola and Apple taking big hits.

But on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz spectrum auction begins, and analysts worry that the current economic climate could make it harder for newcomers to come up with the cash needed for MORE

Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs on the future of wireless technology (and patent disputes)

By Michal Lev-Ram

LAS VEGAS -- Paul Jacobs got his start in a robotics lab in the south of France. Now he runs Qualcomm, one of the world's largest wireless technology companies. Fortune sat down with Jacobs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to talk about the future of wireless services like mobile TV, 4G technology and Qualcomm's recent legal troubles. Late last month Qualcomm suffered a significant setback MORE

The battle over next-generation cellular networks

By Michal Lev-Ram

Half the world doesn't even own a mobile phone but wireless carriers are already fighting over the next-generation cellular network.

Consumers may care less about whether they'll be using WiMAX, LTE or UMB to download video to their phones or browse the Web faster than ever before. But one by one, mobile operators are aligning themselves with one of these competing next-generation, or 4G, technologies, placing billion-dollar MORE