#ftcqcom

QCOM James Thompson

First up in @FTC vs @Qualcomm is James Thompson, Qualcomm's CTO. #ftcqcom

Thompson oversees all engineering at @Qualcomm. He's been at the company for 27 years and worked on CDMA when he first joined #ftcqcom

If @Qualcomm didn't have to design a standalone modem for @Apple every year, it probalby wouldn't release them as often, CTO Thompson testifies cnet.co via @CNET

sharatibken · 5h5 hours ago

.@Qualcomm CTO Thompson acknowledges that the company won't sell chips to companies who've never had a license. "If a company has a license, we sell. If they never had a license and are not in any kind of negotiation, my understanding is we don't" #ftcqcom

? @sharatibken · 5h5 hours ago

In cross, @FTC presents an email between Thompson and @Qualcomm CEO @stevemollenkopf. In it, Thompson says if Apple's chipping away at Qualcomm's licensing biz, it should fight back when it's strong. Says without Qualcomm, Apple would struggle in parts of NA, China, etc #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

It costs @Qualcomm $250M a year to design modems for @Apple, Thompson says #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

Instead, @Qualcomm would release new modems every 2-3 years, Thompson says. "If we didn’t have the @Apple business, the customers we have for those -- data card people, cars -- they don’t demand you upgrade it every year." #ftcqcom

ibken · 5h5 hours ago

Says @Apple is the only customer that buys modem without the apps processor (Apple makes its own apps processor), @Qualcomm's Thompson says. He says if didn't have to make that for Apple, it wouldn't come out with modems as often #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

From 2011 to 2016, @Qualcomm spent $5B a year on R&D, about 20% of its total revenue, Thompson says #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

"We win or lose every single year," @Qualcomm's Thompson says. "It’s not about a single technology. It’s about a wide range of technologies. ... If you have a spectacular failure on 1 of those technologies, it doesn’t matter, you’re going to

"The modem, it was the best modem on the planet. But that was not enough to save that part," @Qualcomm's Thompson says #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

Compared to the MSM8974 (Qualcomm's most popular modem ever), the MSM8994 failed. It only had a tenth the lifetime sales, @Qualcomm CTO Thompson says #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

Because that chip was so bad, @Samsung ditched @Qualcomm and used its own Exynos chips. Other customers bought older chips, @Thompson says. #ftcqcom

@sharatibken · 5h5 hours ago

Thompson talks about the industry's move to 64-b--chips. @Qualcomm was really ready for it so it rushed to change its chip. Because of that, the chip didn't do well. #ftcqcom

ccount? @sharatibken · 5h5 hours ago

Thompson is going over the modems @Qualcomm has launched over the last several years. Notes MSM8960 was very important because it was first time it could integrate full multimode LTE with its app processor. "It allowed LTE globally to scale up." #ftcqcom

Man, this is taking me way back to my early days covering tech and chips. I almost forgot there were so many companies trying to supply to mobile devices

In 2011, @Qualcomm was worried about @Apple, @Samsung, @Nvidia, @TXInstruments and @Intel building apps processors with integrated modems, Thompson says. Rivals Marvell, @Broadcom and ST Ericsson already had such chips #ftcqcom

"Basically the small companies love us," @Qualcomm CTO Thompson says. "And the large companies, we’re competition and a supplier. They like us and don’t like us." (it's those big companies that have helped the @FTC and testified against Qualcomm in this trial) #ftcqcom

5h5 hours ago

Thompson talks about relationship @Qualcomm builds with smaller mobile companies. It helps them figure out how to navigate the market. Says @Samsung was like that before became huge. Now @oppo, Vivo, @oneplus and others are challenging @Huawei, @Apple and @Samsung #ftcqcom

sharatibken · 5h5 hours ago

Along with making high-end chips, @Qualcomm also designs processors for entry level devices. They cost about 1/10th of the cost of a high-end chip, CTO Thompson says. #Ftcqcom

.@Qualcomm has about 500 people working on cameras, 600 working on graphics, CTO Thompson says #ftcqcom

tibken · 5h5 hours ago

When @Qualcomm and Thompson realized the co was going to be about data, it started investing in multimedia work b/c that's what would create and consume the data. #FTCQCOM

When @Qualcomm finally launched an LTE chip, "to our surprise, we were the only ones," Thompson says. "When we came out with that product, we were the only ones with a commercial product." #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

"It was like a call to arms in the company where we marshaled the resources we could around the company to try to catch up," @Qualcomm's Thompson says. "There was a lot of evidence we were behind. We pulled out all the stops and eventually came out with a product." #ftcqcom

· 5h5 hours ago

When @Qualcomm was getting into 4G LTE, it thought it was behind, Thompson says. It saw demos by @Samsung and @LG in Korea and thought it was really late with 4G. #ftcqcom

"To do this multimode, all-world product, we have teams all over the world that actually do testing," @Qualcomm's Thompson says. "We have teams around the world to test in those networks to prove that it works. It makes it easy for our customer to go to any customer they want."

· 6h6 hours ago

What makes @Qualcomm successful in LTE, attorney asks. Thompson says it's 2 things: "We try and succeed to be the first to come out with the latest feature set." And "just as important, we provide this multimode product." #ftcqcom

Lenovo- Blumberg >>>>>>>>>

. @Lenovo's Blumberg testifies that @Qualcomm never threatened to not supply chips

Attorney reads email between @Lenovo execs saying that @Qualcomm said it would keep supplying chips, even if the companies don't reach a new licensing agreement. #ftcqcom

. @Qualcomm is now playing a 2.5-minute video of John Grubb, senior director of IP transactions at @BlackBerry. Says he doesn't know of any instances of Qualcomm cutting off or threatening to cut off chip supply #ftcqcom

Florian Mueller

@FOSSpatents

·

24m

Combination of break and long sealed testimony (Lasinski) now. But will be back later. Quite eventful. The #FTC is in its low-key, unspectacular way inching closer and closer toward victory, unless #Qualcomm has some unforeseeable silver bullets in its case-in-chief. #ftcqcom