Zoom to make 3G phones with Qualcomm chips

Zoom Technologies Inc signed a licensing pact with chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, allowing the Chinese mobile phone maker to develop and sell 3G devices using Qualcomm's chip patents, sending its shares soaring as much as 64 percent.
Zoom's Nollec Wireless unit will develop the products for the Chinese market and pay royalties to Qualcomm at standard rates.
Qualcomm's chips are used by mobile device makers including Apple and HTC.
"With this (chips) we will make smartphones, the smarter the phones higher the margins," said Zoom Chief Financial Officer Anthony Chan.
Zoom plans to launch the new phones in China under its Leimone brand by summer this year and expects sales of these devices to show up in its third-quarter results.
"Our own products enjoy margins of 10-15 percent where as the OEM products have margins of 6 percent," Chan said.
Original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, make products for larger companies to be branded and marketed by them.
Sales from Zoom's Leimone phones - its line of mobile phones sold through Chinese national carriers - contributed almost 19 percent to its top line last year.
Zoom will make some types of CDMA smartphones running on the Android operating system, targeting Asia and Europe.
Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, technology allows many signals to occupy a single transmission channel, optimizing the use of available bandwidth.
Zoom will expand to North America and European markets with these products by the end of 2011.
The company sells phones to major Chinese carriers such as China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

T-Mobile introduces Dash 3G

T-Mobile has introduced the T-Mobile Dash 3G, a long-awaited refreshed version of its predecessor. The Dash 3G will go on sale in stores in July.

The new Dash 3G is similar to the HTC Snap, which is available on Sprint and Verizon. It is the first 3G phone from T-Mobile to use the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition operating system. The handset has evolved from its previous iteration to look sleeker and more smoothly designed. It replaces the previous model's five-way nav button and cluster of small nav keys beneath the display with a trackball and clearly defined, round nav buttons. The QWERTY keyboard appears roomy as well.

More details, including price, to come when available. What is known is that the Dash 3G has a QVGA (320 by 240 pixel resolution) display, integrated GPS, Exchange server support, microSDHC card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 2-megapixel camera. These features are a boost over the previous version, but fall short of some of the beefier specs of phones like the Palm Pre or the iPhone 3G.

China Mobile to produce 3G mobile phones

World's largest mobile carrier, China Mobile is in talks with Taiwan's three major mobile phone network operators to cooperate on roaming services.

Chairman of China Mobile, Wang Jianzhou said talks had been held with Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications about potential cooperative arrangements.

Wang Jianzhou added the firm also hopes to cooperate with Taiwan phone makers to develop mobile devices.

Deputy general manager of China Mobile, Zhang Chunjiang said the company's volume of calls has declined since the last quarter of 2008 due to the financial crisis.

Zhang Chunjiang said China Mobile will work with foreign companies including Nokia to produce third generation (3G) mobile phones. The company plans to spend 58.8 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) this year on its 3G network, which will cover about 300 Chinese cities by the end of 2009.