Fujitsu Siemens backs embedded HSPA modem intiative

Stuart Corner
Monday, 15 December 2008 00:40

IT Industry - Strategy

Fujitsu Siemens Computers has joined the GSM Association's (GSMA) Mobile Broadband Initiative, formed to promoted laptops and other mobile devices with embedded HSPA modems. Some analyst, however remain bearish about the market for these versus separate HSPA modems.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers claims to be one of the few laptop makers to equip all its "professional notebook" models with integrated HSPA modems and will now ship all these with the Mobile Broadband service mark, an identifier developed by the Mobile Broadband Initiative to "help consumers identify a range of 'ready to run' mobile broadband devices."

"We decided at a very early stage to equip our products with high-speed 3G/UMTS as the network access technology of tomorrow, we were supplying notebooks with integrated broadband access as early as 2006," said Louis Jouanny, head of mobility marketing programs at Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

He added: "Future mobility will require even greater flexibility than we now experience. Our goal is total connectivity and our product portfolio is unique because we are the only vendor to integrate 3G/UMTS modules in all our professional Notebooks, from entry level to high-end as well as tablet PCs."

Nokia last year announced a collaboration with Intel to produce HSPA modems for embedding in laptops and other devices but quickly abandoned it and has just announced plans to enter the HSPA 'dongle' market.

Meanwhile market research firm, Disruptive Analysis, has just issued a pessimistic forecast for devices with embedded HSPA. It claims that "The near-term importance of new embedded-3G and embedded-WiMAX notebooks has been significantly over-estimated...Even in three year's time, laptops with built-in wireless access will only be used by 30 percent of total, active mobile broadband subscribers globally. External USB modems will account for 58 percent - almost twice as many."

However, Disruptive Analysis predicts that in the long term, embedded mobile broadband will overtake separate modems, in terms of both shipments and the active user base. "By 2014, there will be 150m users of notebooks and the smaller 'netbooks' with embedded mobile broadband worldwide. In terms of device shipments, 100m wireless-enabled laptops will be sold annually by then – although not all of them will actually be activated," it says.

Disruptive Analysis gives numerous reasons for the slower-than-anticipated growth of products with embedded wireless wide area networking. These include: the global recession impacting notebook purchases; unfavourable pricing differentials; the limitations of the sales and support channels for mobile-enabled notebooks; and the typical two-year monthly contract payment model, which does not fit with much of the target market for these devices.