Qualcomm Could Shine At CES

The company is likely to announce new partners for its Gobi broadband technology.

Qualcomm rarely grabs the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show, the sprawling annual exhibition of high-tech gadgets. But this year could be different.

A growing side business in wireless broadband technology for notebook computers means San Diego-based Qualcomm (nasdaq: QCOM - news - people ) is likely to be part of a number of high-profile CES announcements in Las Vegas this week. The company is expected to announce more major partnerships for its Gobi broadband technology.
2009 will be a big year," says Mike Concannon, vice president of strategic products for Qualcomm's CDMA technologies division. "In addition to getting more [manufacturers] signed on, we are going deeper into their [product] lines."

Qualcomm's broadband partners include Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ), which currently offers more than 10 PCs with Qualcomm silicon, and Panasonic. Other manufacturers are stepping up. Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) is bullish on embedding broadband in its PCs, says Michael Abary, senior vice president of product marketing in Sony's IT products division.

Qualcomm has tracked the embedded broadband market since late 2005, Concannon says. In 2007, it made an entrance with Gobi, a module that contains a Qualcomm chipset, global positioning system functionality and a modem that supports a wide range of third generation, or 3G, cellular networks.

That last point is Gobi's selling point. Its flexible modem enables users to connect to the Web anytime, anywhere, regardless of carrier technology. That's helpful in a world that toggles between two different cellular standards: GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). It simplifies things for PC makers, too. "[Manufacturers] love it because it takes complexity out of the equation," says Dan Shey, a principal analyst at ABI Research. "Before, they had to stock a different computer model for each carrier."

At first, Gobi's cost and lengthy product cycles stifled adoption. A year and some months later, Qualcomm's pitch is finally catching on. On Monday, HP unveiled a sleek 12-inch notebook that can be purchased with Gobi-embedded broadband. HP is also backing an extensive ad campaign for its 3G PCs that exhorts people to "Work in 3G." Other high-profile notebook announcements are expected to follow in the next few days when CES kicks off.