Qualcomm Inc. is joining a race to deliver Internet access to people in emerging countries, with a plan that takes the chip maker beyond cellphones into desktop hardware.The San Diego company, which is holding a meeting with analysts Thursday in New York, has developed a design for a home computing device that uses its cellphone chips rather than the components found in most personal computers. The goal is to bring Web access to places that have cellular data networks, but wired connections are unavailable or unaffordable.
Kayak, as Qualcomm's device is called, is expected to be plugged into a TV or computer monitor, and also requires a keyboard and mouse. Qualcomm is betting that, rather than run PC software, users will tap into Internet services that now serve as equivalents for some popular programs.
"We are not calling it a computer," said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of marketing and product management for Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies unit. "It's a computing device that allows you to have Internet access."
Qualcomm plans to provide the design for Kayak to manufacturers that may sell the product or work with distribution partners. The company says trials of prototype units, manufactured by Taiwan-based Inventec Corp., will be conducted during the first quarter of 2009 in Southeast Asia.
Mr. Pineda said Kayaks are expected to cost less than $399, and pricing could be considerably lower if wireless carriers or other companies offer hardware subsidies in exchange for monthly service fees, a common practice in the cellular industry.
Low pricing will be essential to compete for customers in India, Africa and other locations that can't afford conventional PCs. One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit group that designed a distinctive laptop for students in emerging countries, currently charges $200 to individuals who donate them. Intel Corp. cites a slightly higher starting price for its portable Classmate PC, though some configurations cost up to nearly $500.
NComputing, of Redwood City, Calif., charges $70 to $80 for terminals that allow multiple users to share one PC's computing power, said Raj Shah, its chief marketing officer. The closely held company -- which Wednesday unveiled technology that boosts the number of users that can share one PC to 11 from seven -- charges as little as $50 for its devices in large-volume purchases, he adds.
Qualcomm, though known for chips that manage communications and computing in cellphones, also is competing with Intel in technology for a new class of mobile devices for tapping into the Internet.
The company Thursday plans to discuss a more powerful version of a chip called Snapdragon for those products, available in the second half of 2009, which operates at a faster speed and has two processing units rather than one.
Qualcomm's chips use a microprocessor designed and licensed by ARM Holdings PLC, which can't run PC versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system or application programs developed for it.
But Mr. Pineda said Kayak will use a Qualcomm operating system called BREW, and can run programs written for it -- including some games and software for playing music and videos.
NComputing's Mr. Shah noted that customers in emerging countries often want full PC capability, and that some rural areas may not have the broadband cellular coverage that Qualcomm's plans require. But he nonetheless welcomed Qualcomm's effort to get involved in spreading technology to poor people.
"The more the merrier," Mr. Shah said. "There is so much demand out there."
