‘QualSoft’ the next force in the mobile multimedia battle?

MS and Qualcomm join forces to challenge Nokia

Qualcomm’s last major venture with Microsoft was Wireless Knowledge, a failed foray into mobile enterprise email that nevertheless highlighted the companies’ ability to think ahead of major wireless trends.

The two giants’ new collaboration is more ambitious and has far greater disruptive potential, offering a tightly integrated combination of Windows and CDMA or W-CDMA that does not only cut time to market for ODMs, but will produce the first 3G Windows smartphone and a strong multimedia device platform that could build a bridge to the mainstream PC and IPTV worlds for CDMA operators, and therefore strengthen their fixed/mobile convergence hands, while boosting Qualcomm’s already advanced multimedia content capabilities.

Microsoft may be the weakest of the high level operating systems in mobile phones, but it has huge power in other key convergence platforms such as home and portable media centers; and it brings a credibility boost to Qualcomm’s bid to extend its reach beyond the warmth of its CDMA homeland – a boost that could, in future, stretch to support for the chipmaker in the brewing battle over OFDM broadband wireless platforms.

There are many complications in the way of any attempt to create a Wintel-style alliance for the next generation mobile world, a possible extension of the current handset and patents agreement.

One is how far Qualcomm’s own software ambitions, enshrined in the Brew environment, will have to be adapted or subsumed to Microsoft; another is the relationship with Intel, Microsoft’s most important partner and Qualcomm’s beГЄte noir. Nonetheless, the two new allies have made an important first step in what could prove a major force in mobile multimedia, and a challenge to their mutual enemy, Nokia.

Qualcomm and Microsoft have a lot in common, and not just intense scrutiny by anti-trust authorities and huge market influence. They share some key strategic goals, notably leadership of the emerging mobile content and media industry, and control of the device architectures for this sector. They are both venturing out of markets where their dominant position is almost unchallengeable in to new waters where they face different and powerful competitors.

This means they also share several common enemies, most importantly Nokia. So, while the close alliance hinted at by last week’s announcement of a smartphone collaboration may be seen in parts of the wireless industry as the gathering of the forces of darkness, it is also highly pragmatic and shows the two giants huddling together for warmth as they face increasingly critical challenges in the world of ubiquitous connectivity and mobile multimedia.

Microsoft is looking for a new familiar that can carry Windows into its chosen new markets, in the same way that Intel does in the PC world, but has largely failed to do in mobile media; and Qualcomm, beset by an unprecedented alliance of its opponents, will welcome a powerful new friend to strengthen its current CDMA platforms and even add credibility to its attempts to take a leading role in the next wireless generation, dominated by OFDM technologies.