Koreans Take Aim at Qualcomm

October 25, 2005 - source: BWCS

Wireless chip company Eonex has announced it is in line to release a mobile phone complete with a domestically produced CDMA chip and operating software for the Korean market.

Chun Sung-hwan, the president of Eonex, claimed that the new handset will enable Korean companies to better compete with their global rivals as they develop mobile phone chips and third-generation mobile handsets. The Korean manufacturer said it will begin shipping EVDO chips in the first half of next year and plans to release a very low-cost CDMA2000 1X modem chips which will be targeted at the Indian, Southeast-Asian and Central and South American markets.

The new phone chips are not expected to immediately bring down the price of mobile handsets in Korea, as companies still have to pay royalties to Qualcomm. However, industry insiders admit that should Korean companies continue to narrow the technology gap on their US rivals it will have enormous repercussions for the market as whole.

Eonex said that its new mobile handset will house a 1.3 megapixel camera, boast 64-chord ring tones and work on the WIPI wireless Internet platform. Eonex is the second company in the world after Qualcomm to develop EVDO chips.