This story was too juicy to not run
SonyEricsson�s exit from the North American CDMA market was abrupt. It caught Sprint, and everyone by surprise. But was this due to a change in plans, or something much more troubling as to the T608 itself?
It took quite awhile for the community to discover that the T608 used a Qualcomm MSM5xxx chipset, heck it took the discovery that the T608 works with BitPim to confirm that it was not only using a Qualcomm-based chipset, but the Qualcomm File System itself (a port that must have required a lot of work from some talented developers I might add). But something still hasn’t added up, and that is why the disinformation campaign that eluded to Sony Ericsson developing their own CDMA2000 chipset, when they could have come out and stated they were using Qualcomm’s all along. The T608 is the only Qualcomm 3G Sprint phone to not bear the Qualcomm logo anywhere on it, why the cover-up?
A reliable source has alerted me that his/her conversations with multiple former SE CDMA team members reveal that SonyEricsson achieved some portion of the T608 and T606’s development with stolen Qualcomm technology. Now, this really at first look doesn’t make sense. SE has been working with Qualcomm for quite awhile to develop their own CDMA chipset for KDDI and 1xEV-DO in Japan (a la Nokia). But Qualcomm has been mum about CDMA2000 with Sony Ericsson.
If Sony Ericsson were to have spent all that R&D on stolen Qualcomm technology, in some part, to create a SE MSM5xxx chipset it would make sense why, if someone at Qualcomm were to figure this out, that SE would want to exit the CDMA market in North America very quickly, cutting their losses.
All of this should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is interesting that Qualcomm has been extremely silent about their North American relations with Sony Ericsson. Perhaps someone would like to clarify?
