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Qualcomm’s Toq More of a ‘Display Model’

Qualcomm Inc.’s new Toq smart watch might be compared to a diamond ring. There are the jewels. Then there is everything else.

The jewels are the core technologies such as Qualcomm’s (Nasdaq: QCOM) Mirasol display at the watch’s center. The watch itself? It’s merely a setting.

That’s the impression CEO Paul Jacobs gave when describing how the new watch will fit into his company’s strategy going forward.

Jacobs said the most likely business model for the watch will be to sell technologies such as the Mirasol display and other electronics to third-party builders, and provide reference designs for their engineers. Qualcomm will leave it to others to make the final product and market it to consumers.

Limited Edition

Qualcomm doesn’t plan to become a consumer products company. The watch will be a limited edition model, Jacobs told an international gathering of reporters on the first day of his company’s Uplinq wireless developer conference Sept. 4.

Still, if there is demand for the Qualcomm smart watch, the company would try to find a way to meet it, Jacobs said.

The Toq (pronounced: tock) will be available in the fourth quarter.

The CEO looked back to the days when Qualcomm made its own wireless phone handsets. Qualcomm got the market for its Code Division Multiple Access technology going but eventually bowed out, content to make the inner workings of CDMA phones and sell them to manufacturers.

Those who attended Jacobs’ keynote speech got a voucher for a Toq of their own.

Wrist Watchers

Qualcomm unveiled its watch on the same day that Samsung announced its entry to the smart watch market with a product called Galaxy Gear. Pebble and Sony are also bringing smart watches to market. More competitors are reportedly in the wings.

Qualcomm describes the watch as a second screen for Android mobile phones — it does not work with Apple Inc. products. With Toq, company officials said, wearers will be able to manage smartphone calls, text messages, meeting reminders and various notifications from their wrists.

Qualcomm’s Mirasol display technology, which is always on, is a reflective technology and therefore doesn’t use much power. And unlike other displays, people can read it in bright sunlight.

Mirasol uses micro-electrical mechanical systems technology, or MEMS, which uses the movement of thousands of microscopic mirrors the control the wavelength of reflected light. Published reports said the company invested about $1 billion a few years ago to build a factory in Taiwan to make Mirasol displays.

“Until this point, Mirasol has not been adopted by tablet and cell phone makers,” said Gus Richard, an analyst with stock advisory firm Piper Jaffray.

Richard said such slow adoption could be due to a technical issue or because Qualcomm has not produced Mirasol in sufficient volume to reduce price per unit.

Qualcomm said the watch will need recharging every few days and that users can do so wirelessly.

Among the product’s many features is stereo audio. The Toq will send signals to wireless headphones via Bluetooth radio technology.

Jacobs told reporters about the trial and error of developing the watch. The Toq went through two generations of development before engineers hit on the current, third generation.

Still, Qualcomm was able to keep development quiet. In mid-July, the Business Journal reported on rumors of a Qualcomm smart watch, and the growing popularity of smart watches in general.

Device Vs. Doctors

In other news from the conference, Qualcomm:

• Announced that the Food and Drug Administration joined the company as a partner in its $10 million Tricorder X-prize. The name goes back to the advanced medical device on the science fiction television show “Star Trek.” Qualcomm is hoping competing teams can come up with a device that can diagnose disease “with an accuracy at or better than a panel of board-certified physicians,” Jacobs said.

• Demonstrated its AllPlay platform, which uses wireless technology to stream music to home audio components. Jacobs and John Irving, president of the subscription music service Rhapsody, showed off the technology.

• Displayed advances in its Vuforia “augmented reality” technology. Programs that use Vuforia take video of the physical world and put computer-generated images of make-believe things on top of it. During the demonstration, Qualcomm engineers turned a coffee table into the scene of 3-D video game. At one point it appeared clinging vines were growing over the objects on the table, including a vase and a box of tissues.

A few moments later, cartoon characters appeared to be scrambling over the landscape.

Qualcomm spent $4 billion in research and development during 2012, according to Jacobs. The company had revenue of $19.1 billion in fiscal 2012 and expects revenue of at least $24.3 billion this fiscal year.

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