Qualcomm not surprised by Nokia move on CDMA

Qualcomm has said that they are not surprised at the recent announcement that Nokia is getting out of a possible deal with Sanyo to build CDMA technology based mobile phones.

The mobile phone maker also said that they would stop making cellphones based on Qualcomm’s CDMA technology. However, Qualcomm believes that this would not affect its 2006 financial outlook.

They said in a statement: “Its not a surprise to us that Nokia is announcing it’s stepping back from the CDMA business because I don’t think they had that much success.”

Nokia and Qualcomm have a long history of disagreements on the royalties charged by the latter on their CDMA technologies. They continue to fight legal battles related to competition rules and technology standard setting and licensing fees.

However, the news resulted in Qualcomm shares take a beating in the stock markets, as Nokia happens to be the world’s largest maker of mobile phones. However, they are dominated by Motorola in the crucial US mobile market, which is mostly based on the CDMA technology.