Qualcomm's Cutting-Edge Strategy

Business Week is running an interview with Qualcomm's founder and CEO, Irwin Jacobs, where he sounds positively cocky about the future of CDMA and Qualcomm. He takes some digs at Cingular and AT&T for using TDMA/GPRS technology, saying that no one sees any reasons to upgrade phones on those technologies, but that Verizon and Sprint PCS are having no problems getting people to upgrade due to their next generation CDMA networks. It's not surprising that he's overhyping his own products (and, perhaps, the adoption rates of those new networks from Sprint PCS and Verizon). I wonder, though, if now is really the time to be so cocky. Many in the industry are struggling, and while Qualcomm seems to be doing well (thanks, in large part, to growth in Asia), it's still possible that Qualcomm may face growth problems in the future as well. It just seems like it's a little early to brag.