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Qualcomm Inc., a chip manufacturer based in San Diego, intends to profit from in-house Bluetooth intellectual property. The firm plans to use Bluetooth to reduce costs, power consumption, and the footprint of the chip-based functionality in consumer electronics and mobile handsets. Qualcomm acquired a substantial amount of RF Micro Device's Bluetooth business as part of its initiative, which will permit Qualcomm to exploit its handset business to a greater degree while moving into new product areas at the same time. These areas include stereo headsets, connected PDAs, personal navigation devices, and game platforms, says Behrooz Abdi, senior vice president and general manager of the CDMA Technologies division at Qualcomm. By integrating RFMD's Bluetooth IP into Qualcomm's own baseband chips, the firm will be able to offer handset-vendor customers an improved set of features that will fuel the rate at which Bluetooth technology is included in handsets. This is expected to be particularly true in the inexpensive, mass market where volume presents significant opportunities. Abdi says that in order to drive adoption of Bluetooth, the firm must reduce the cost of the functions so they can be included in street-level phones. Costs to handset vendors must drop below the current rate, which ranges between about $2.50 and about $4.00.
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