News
Issue #2003 - 25 (September 2003)
(Updated Sept. 12, 2003)

MARKET OUTLOOK & TRENDS

CDMA Giant Qualcomm & GSM Association Honour Industry Implementers Differently

It is interesting to watch and compare different approaches that two major organizations are taking recently to promote and honour service providers and enterprises who utilize their technologies:

Qualcomm Approach
It will honor those enterprises that have utilized CDMA's wireless data services in the most innovative way with the best return on investment (ROI). While Qualcomm is promoting the awards and has set a broad criteria, the winners will be selected by independent consultants and editors. 

GSM Forum's Approach
London, 11 September 2003: The GSM Association today unveiled the 2004 industry Awards program and officially called for entries. The ninth annual GSM Awards, sponsored by Intel Corporation, is the premier global mobile industry awards program. The aim of the awards is to recognize and reward new ideas in technology, services and marketing that fuel growth of the industry today. The deadline for entries is 28 November 2003.

The GSM Association also announced today that Vodafone is to sponsor the “Mobile in the Community” award category, which focuses on use of mobile in the areas of special needs, accessibility and emergency situations.

“In early 2004 the GSM community will celebrate one billion customers – a staggering achievement in just 10 years. The GSMA’s Awards highlight the dedication to innovation that has driven our industry this far this fast,” said Rob Conway, CEO and member of the board, GSM Association. “The addition of a new Mobile in the Community award also enables us to honour the role GSM has played in improving the quality of peoples’ lives around the globe”. 

The 2004 GSM Awards are open to operators, manufacturers, suppliers, application developers and content providers from around the world that support any of the GSM family of technologies: GSM, GPRS and 3GSM (EDGE & Wideband CDMA). Entries will be judged by an international panel of independent judges – to be announced shortly.

GSM Award Categories

1 TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION 
a) Best Mobile Handset, Terminal or Device 
b) Best Mobile Infrastructure or Network Solution

2 APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES 
a) Best Mobile Application or Service: Corporate Market 
b) Best Mobile Application or Service: Consumer Market 
c) Best Mobile Application Developer 

3. MOBILE IN THE COMMUNITY - Sponsored by Vodafone 
a) Best Use of Mobile for Accessibility 
b) Best Use of Mobile for Emergency Situations 
c) Best Use of Mobile Technology – Special Needs 

For more information: http://www.qualcomm.com and http://www.gsm.org

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: GSM and CDMA proponents have somewhat different strategies on promoting wireless data in the enterprise. This shows up in their award promotion methods as well. GSM continues to emphasize the consumer market. Its broad focus, including handsets and infrastructure does not put enough emphasis on the enterprise. 

From our biased position of the enterprise, we like Qualcomm's exclusive attention to wireless data applications in the enterprise.  Qualcomm is definitely showing some leadership with its promotion of CDMA-based enterprise application. Even on pure merits of CDMA versus GSM/GPRS, CDMA scores better on speed and capacity. 

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