In a period where investors are looking for some excitement to kick-start the next bull run, wireless stalwart Nokia
Nokia doubled its share of CDMA handset sales in the global market. Some were unfazed because of the basis -- Nokia only claimed a single-digit share of the market one year ago. But claiming market share of CDMA handsets in the mid-teens is an important milestone for Nokia. Ignoring this statistic due to its dominance in the GSM space may be justified in the short term. But overlooking this event is a long-term blunder because of the small fact that -- oh, by the way -- CDMA is the future of all mobile communications.
Nokia's past performance in CDMA has been far from stellar. One of the first licensees of Qualcomm's
Nokia's setbacks in CDMA stemmed from flaws in CDMA chipsets and software they developed in-house rather than buying from Qualcomm. Due to the delivery of poorly performing CDMA phones in the late 1990s, the two major CDMA operators in the U.S. -- Verizon Wireless
Nokia displaced cellular king Motorola
Dave Mock is CDMA-challenged but hopes to get back to the future soon. He is the author of Tapping into Wireless, and welcomes your feedback at [email protected]. Dave owns shares of Motorola.