Qualcomm Dealing with Chip Glitches

Qualcomm Corp. this week acknowleged that it had found some glitches in some early shipments of 3G cell phone components, which could result in performance problems.

The San Diego, Calif. company said that the problematic components included its CDMA2000 1X MSM5100 and MSM5105 chipsets and related software.

Company officials said that the error has been fixed and customers are now receiving volume shipments of repaired chipsets.

Qualcomm officials would not comment on the specific problem or disclose which customers had been affected.

However, Audiovox Corp. discussed the problem in an earnings call on Thursday, in which it announced a drop in sales. Audiovox had to delay shipment of its 9155 GPX handset because of the faulty chipset, according to officials at the Hauppage, NY, company. The phones were supposed to be ready by the beginning of the year.

“First quarter wireless sales were adversely affected by a delay in carrier approvals of our new 1X phones, which required software modifications to correct a chipset issue,” said John Shalam, chairman, president and CEO of Audiovox. “These phones are now in the final stages of carrier testing and we expect approvals shortly.”