Two number ones
Timmons works for the largest division: Qualcomm CDMA technologies (QCT). This is the bit that actually makes chips, as opposed to licensing its technology to other technology companies or providing other services.
We started by asking Timmons to summarise Qualcomm for our readers. "We're a fabless chip company, making primarily communications chips for communications devices," he said. "We're now the number one mobile chipset company in the world - we overtook TI some time ago - and we're the largest fabless semiconductor company in the world by some distance."
"Qualcomm is over 20 years old and the original founders took CDMA spectrum technology, which already existed, and spread it to mobile at a time when first and second generation mobile technologies were struggling. All 3G technology is founded on CDMA." That means every time anyone sells a 3G phone they have to pay Qualcomm some money.
Timmons' background includes a strategic role at phone operator O2 and he uses that experience to try to anticipate future technology requirements. "Qualcomm is trying to set up technology platforms that give the operators at least the opportunity to have the kind of flexibility in devices and applications that I always felt I needed as an operator."
