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Swetha Kannan

Bangalore, Feb. 27 Qualcomm, a player in the wireless technology space, is keen to bring in enhanced applications in low-end CDMA handsets.

Currently, only basic applications and services such as e-mail, Internet, wallpaper, ring-tones and games are available on low-end CDMA phones.

Qualcomm, which delivers CDMA technology to mobile carriers, wants to “increase the type of applications beyond wallpapers and ring-tones” – aided by its ‘BREW’ platform. The advanced applications include social networking, instant messaging and ticketing for movies and travelling.

BREW is a basic framework similar to the operating system in a personal computer. It fuels the adoption of various applications on CDMA phones be it high-, middle- or low-end.

Mr Rakesh Godhwani, Manager - mobile content and applications, Qualcomm, says low-end handsets – costing as less as Rs 1,500 – have the potential to enable sophisticated applications available on high-end handsets.

Mr Godhwani sees great potential for value-added services and applications on low-end phones.

“There is a perception that on low-end there is not much of a desire for these applications. But we believe there is. Everybody is focussing on the high-end phone. But we can do lot of work on low-end phones because people do buy on these applications,” he says. The bulk (70-80 per cent) of the mobile devices in the country are on the low-end side. What is interesting is that the bulk of the current downloads also happen on these phones, adds Mr Godhwani.

Qualcomm is working with developers of mobile phone applications, such as Jataayu, Tagit and Rocket Talk, to get superior applications ready for low-end handsets — by making small innovations and tweaks in screen size to optimise images, reducing network dependency and ensuring seamless connectivity. It could take about two quarters to materialise, says Mr Godhwani.

About 30 per cent of the mobile phone market is on the CDMA platform. In India, Qualcomm partners with CDMA operators Tata Teleservices and Reliance; both carriers deploy BREW.

Qualcomm is also working on advanced ‘location services’ to track what’s around you or locate where your family and friends are.

While the current GPS technology fixes the location in 10-12 minutes, the ‘assisted GPS’ that Qualcomm is working on will fix it in less than 20 seconds, says Mr Godhwani.

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Qualcomm to make low-end CDMA handsets versatile

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