Parallel Lines

Why doesn't Qualcomm buy Motorola's mobile phone business? It's available, well soon to be, after Motorola's decision to spin off its mobile phone business.

Qualcomm has the cash - around $11bn in the bank at the end of January - and it has the ambition, to be the leading technology brand in the mobile phone market.

So would it make sense for Qualcomm, the holder of so many fundamental 3G WCDMA patents, to own a handset business? On the face of it, no.

At least one industry watcher has welcomed Motorola's decision to split itself into two parts as a good move.

But I have seen nothing to alter my belief that merger or acquisition will be the most likely outcome for Motorola's troubled handset business.

Important, not to say vital, support for the development of the PC-like mobile phone quietly slipped into the handset market this week with Adobe saying it would make its Flash software freely available for mobile devices.

Companies endorsing the plan to make mobiles "just like a PC in your hand", through what Adobe calls its Open Screen Project, include ARM, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics, Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson.

Also behind the move are content providers such as the BBC, MTV Networks and NBC Universal.