Why Apple And The FTC Are At War With Qualcomm

In 1985, a group of seven people, most of them engineers, and all of them formerly of the tech company Linkabit, formed a company called Qualcomm, short for Quality Communications. 
高通為高質量通訊的簡稱，於1985年由7位前Linkabit科技公司的工程師所組成的小組成立。

Today, a few decades later, Qualcomm is valued at almost $70 billion. 
數幾十年過後，高通現今價值高達7000億。

But the path it's taken to get there is not without controversy.
當今的成就並未輕易地達成。

They charge exorbitant prices.
他們開出天價。

The FTC is really going after Qualcomm's bread and butter.
聯邦貿易委員會緊追高通收入來源。

When I saw Qualcomm doing it first, I thought that's never gonna work.
一開始我看到高通的作法並不認為會成功。

The optics of it don't look particularly good.
機率看起來沒有特別地好。

So what does Qualcomm actually do? Because it's not exactly a household name.
所以高通在做什麼呢？ 因為它不是個家喻戶曉的名字。

Qualcomm, they do something with phones.
高通公司主要著手於手機上。

I think I've seen the name but I have no idea what they're doing.
我好像有看過這個名字但是不確定他們是做什麼的。

No, I've never heard of Qualcomm. 
我從來沒有聽過高通。

Some sort of tech company.
好像是某家科技公司。

Apple and Qualcomm have some kind of, there's like maybe some kind of patent infringement.
蘋果和高通有...好像有專利權侵占問題。

I think I have heard the name before. But beyond that, I couldn't tell you anymore at all. 
我以前好像聽過這個名字但就僅是如此。

And I haven't heard the name Qualcomm before.
我從來沒聽過高通。

Qualcomm is the company that has been over the years developing a lot of the fundamental technologies that make cellphones work. 
高通公司近幾年來開發許多基礎科技使手機可以正常運作。

And we license that technology to a horizontal model that any company can come in. 
我們授權此技術至平面模型上好讓任何公司可以加。

The other part of the business is our semiconductor business, and we produce chips for phones and for everything that the mobile industry has been transforming. 
另外產業則是我們的半導體，製造手機晶片以及緊追行動產業的轉換。

You should assume that the absolute majority of the phones today has a Qualcomm processor on it.
你可以認定現今大多數的手機都內至高通的處理器。

So fundamentally, Qualcomm invents and licenses technologies and designs semiconductor chips. 
基本上，高通發明並授權科技以及設計半導體晶片。

And as a result, it has a massive amount of patents.
結果指出，它擁有大量的專利權。

Over 130,000 if you include patent applications, and today licensing those patents accounts for more than half of its operating income. 
如果包含專利申請的話則超出13萬個，目前光授權現有的專利就占公司營運收入的一半以上。

R&D has been a big focus of the company since the beginning. 
研究開發部從初期就是公司的極大重心。

Qualcomm's first big win was pioneering a new wireless technology in the late 80s called cdmaONE, which in 1995 became one of two industry standards for the way cell phone networks work. 
高通第一場勝利發生在80年代晚期，來自成功開拓出全新無線科技"cdmaONE"，並於1995年成為手機網路運作的通訊標準之一。

Along with the competing GSM technology, it defined the 2G area of cellphones. 
同時與全球移動通訊系統競爭並奠定了2G行動通路基礎。

This, along with its growing portfolio of telecommunications patents was what initially secured Qualcomm's position in the industry.
除此之外，持續成長的電訊專利權則是高通能在這個產業保有一席之地的原因。

They really held a monopolistic position in 3G and 4G. 
他們成功地壟斷3G和4G市場。

They had the patents, they were the first, they were the best. 
他們握有專利權，他們是史上第一也是最好的。

Every phone you will see in the U.S., you know a few years ago, had Qualcomm modems in them.
現今美國所看到的手機在幾年前都有安裝高通的調製解調器。

In every single generation of wireless, Qualcomm had contributed the fundamental technology that actually made that possible.
在無線世代裡，高通提供了最重要的技術使一切成真。

When it comes to chips, it's important to note that Qualcomm is a fabless microchip company, which means it designs them but contracts out their actual production. 
當談到晶片時需要了解到高通是個無廠微晶片公司，代表著它設計晶片然後將完成品承包出去。

And it's most well known for a line of processors it calls "Snapdragon."
高通驍龍則是最知名的處理器系列平台名稱。

So what we do is we build the core processor that sits inside the cell phone.
基本上我們製造手機內建裡的中央處理器。

Qualcomm's really known for something called an "SOC," which is a system on a chip. 
高通的系統芯片廣為人知，將電子系統整合到單一晶片。

That's really a computer on a chip.
其實就是將電腦整合到單一晶片。

So you can think of the system on a chip kind of like the human brain, the system on a chip in a phone is very similar. 
所以你可以把片上系統想像成人腦，好比於手機裡的系統芯片。

So you have a lot of disparate functions but they all work together cohesively with system software and that's what the system on a chip does. 
片上系統內建軟體各有不同的功能卻可以和諧地配合。

If you look at the communications portion of the chip itself, let's say back in 2012 is 100 megabits per second. 
在2012年，如果你單看芯片的通訊部份大約為每秒百萬位元。

Five years later, it was a gigabit per second. 
五年後變成每秒十億位元。

So more than a 10 fold increase over five years. 
在過去5年裡增長了10倍以上。

And now as you move to the 5G generation, we're looking at another 10x improvement in speed that the device and Snapdragon can offer.
如今5G世代的到來，我們可以看到裝置帶來10倍的成長。

And right now, 5G is a huge deal to Qualcomm.
現在5G對於高通來說極為地重要。

We started investing in 5G technology over 10 years ago, waiting for this moment that would come in 2019 and now we're right on the cusp of that happening.
我們十幾年前就開始投資於5G科技並期待在2019年能等到這個時刻，然後現在我們正處於分水嶺。

But what does 5G actually mean?
但5G代表什麼呢？

If you go back in time and you looked at 2G, what did 2G bring? 
如果你回頭看看2G為人民帶來了什麼？

It brought digital voice, right? So your call was more clear. 
它帶起數位語音，對吧？ 所以你的通話可以更清楚。

Then 3G and 4G emerged and that was about more than voice, it was about connecting to the internet. 
直到3G和4G的出現就不僅僅只是數位語音而是與網路連結。

But 5G will expand much beyond that. 
但5G會遠遠超過現況。

5G will enable machines to talk to machines with high reliability. 
5G可以使機器間的對話更具有可靠性。

For example, an automobile.
譬如，一輛汽車。

Automobiles, autonomous driving is emerging. 
自動駕駛汽車慢慢在被開發。

So you want a very reliable, high speed communication between automobiles, that's possible with 5G.
5G使汽車擁有可靠的快速通訊成真。

A lot of the connectivity features, the 4G and the 5G technology, and the telematics modules that allow us to have Wi-Fi hotspots in the car and leveraging content from the outside. 
4G、5G及車載資通訊模組的連接特色，使我們在車內擁有WIFI熱點進而得知外來資訊。

Or even a lot of the cellular V2X technology of getting time-to-green and light information as well as safety features directly from other cars. 
甚至許多行動車聯網技術可以得知紅綠燈時間，以及其他台車的安全性能。

You're going to start to see that technology very soon in the coming years.
你即將開始在未來幾年看到這項技術的發展。

In the beginning, it's going to be very mobile broadband centric. 
起初將會以移動寬頻為主。

That means we're going to have smartphones, which are going to have, we can experience much higher data rates and much lower latencies. 
意思是我們的智慧型手機將會有更高的數據頻率，並減少網路的延遲。

And that is going to change the way we do our own businesses.
而這會改變我們做生意的方式。

So 5G is not just a marketing term. 
所以5G不只是個營銷術語。

It's an actual set of new standards, ultimately defined by the International Telecommunication Union, that will lay out how the next generation of cellphones and other mobile devices will work. 
最終將會被國際電信聯盟評估為全新的標準並指出下世紀的手機及行動裝置將會如何運作。

But how soon we'll actually be able to buy those devices and have the systems in place to make use of their 5G tech is yet to be seen.
但需要多久才能購買這些內建5G技術的裝置仍是個未知數。

A lot of times in the semiconductor industry our marketing outpaces our engineering. 
大多時候半導體產業的市場超過它的工程設計。

So when people say "oh 5G's here," not so much. 
當人民開始慶祝5G的到來其實開心得太早。

It'll be years in the making. 
事實上還需要好幾年的開發時間。

3G and 4G Qualcomm dominated the industry. 
高通壟斷了3G和4G產業。

Some people say they may have behaved badly as a result, they were very, monopolistic behavior, and that's good for Qualcomm but that's not good for the industry. 
許多人認為是因為自己表現不佳所導致的，壟斷的行為對於高通是有益的，但對整個產業發展不是好的。

5G is gonna be much more open. Many more companies are participating in it. There's no way Qualcomm is going to have the same position that they've had in the past.
5G將會是更開放的讓許多公司都能參與其中，而高通是無法像以往般壟斷市場。

Another big focus for Qualcomm right now is artificial intelligence.
高通另外的一個重點專注於人工智能。

Qualcomm began our research on AI over a decade ago with Qualcomm AI research. 
高通人工智慧研究公司在十年前就開始著手於人工智能的研究。

And in about 2015, we started integrating AI onto the chip. 
大約在2015年，我們開始將人工智能融入於片上系統。

What that means is we put special processing capability into our chips to accelerate artificial intelligence.
我們將特別的處理性能放進晶片裡以提高人工智能。

When you combine fast communications with 5G, with incredible computational capability with AI, then you really have a platform that'll change the world.
當你將快速通訊與5G結合，加上人工智能極好的計算性能將會擁有改變世界的平台。

But alongside Qualcomm's history of innovation is a complex legal history.
但高通創新的歷史也極為複雜。

In March of 2018, the Trump administration blocked an attempted hostile Qualcomm takeover by competitor Broadcom, citing national security concerns. 
在2018的3月，川普內閣以國家安全性來阻止博通試圖惡意收購高通公司。

A few months later, Qualcomm itself failed to acquire another chip rival, NXP, when it couldn't get Chinese regulatory approval. 
幾個月後，高通因無法獲得中國監管批准所以放棄收購恩智浦。

But its most high-profile cases involve a series of antitrust lawsuits. 
但大多數引人注目的案子涉及於反壟斷訴訟。

In 2009, Qualcomm was fined $208 million by South Korea's antitrust agency, the Korea Fair Trade Commission. 
在2009年，高通受到南韓的反壟斷政府機構 "韓國公平貿易委員會"約20億8千萬的罰款。

In 2015, it paid a $975 million fine in China after an antitrust dispute. 
在2015年與中國的反壟斷糾紛後，支付97億5千萬的罰金。

In 2016, it was again fined by South Korea, this time for $865 million. 
在2016年再度被南韓罰款，而這次金額是86億5千萬元。

It avoided a $778 million fine from Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission by agreeing to invest $700 million in Taiwan over the next five years. 
高通同意為來五年內在台灣投資70億，以避免受到台灣公平貿易委員會約77億8千萬的罰金。

It was fined $1.2 billion by the European Union, and right now it's facing an anti-monopoly lawsuit from the FTC.
高通也受歐盟罰取將近1千2百億元，並同時也面臨到聯邦貿易委員會的反壟斷訴訟。

The U.S. FTC says Qualcomm maintains this monopoly over a key type of chip used in cellphones called baseband processors, and the government says it does that by using these anti-competitive tactics. 
美國聯邦貿易委員會聲明，高通手機晶片裡的基頻處理器是他們能獨佔市場的主因，政府也表示高通運用了反競爭行為。

For example, it says Qualcomm only supplies those chips to cell phone manufacturers, if those manufacturers also agree to license patents from Qualcomm on its preferred terms. 
譬如，政府提出高通只願意提供自家晶片給某些手機生產商，如果他們願意配合公司偏好的合同來授權專利。

So the government says that forces those customers to pay these higher fees, these rates and violates competition law. 
所以政府認為這迫使消費者支出更高的費用及匯率，也同時違反了競爭法。

Qualcomm is fighting back very hard because Qualcomm denies any and all wrongdoing.
高通正在積極地反擊，並否認任何所有的非法行為。

And says at the end of the day the government just hasn't actually proven that its business practices in any way harm consumers or the overall broader competitive market.
因為政府單位始終沒有辦法證實自家產業運作有以任何方式傷害消費者，或是影響整體海外的競爭市場。

When people sell chips, they just sell the chip. 
當人民在賣晶片，就是賣晶片。

You know, you pay for the chip, like going to the store. 
就像是去商店花錢買晶片。

Qualcomm had a business model where if you use their chip, they got a percentage of the total cost of the device. 
如果你使用高通的晶片，他們則會負擔裝置總額的一部分是公司的商業模式。    

So this business model is something I've never experienced. 
這樣的商業模式是我從來沒有體驗過的。

When I saw Qualcomm doing it, first I thought, that's never gonna work. 
起初看到高通商業方式的直覺就是覺得不會成功。

But again, they had a monopoly, you had no choice. 
但他們鞏固了整個晶片產業市場，所以你別無選擇。

If you wanted an SOC, if you wanted a modem, if you want to be in the smartphone business, you had to do business with Qualcomm. 
如果你想要系統級晶元、調製解調器或是想要在智慧型手機市場生存，都必須與高通合作

The FTC is really going after Qualcomm's bread and butter which is its patent licensing business and that actually counted for more than 50 percent of its operating income in its last reported quarter.
聯邦貿易委員會緊盯高通收入來源，根據上季報告指出，高通光授權專利費就占公司營運收入的一半以上。

The key point seems to be certainly the linking between selling a chip, and also asking for a royalty as well as the money for that chip. 
關鍵因素似乎在於販賣晶片、要求權利金以及產品費用間的連結。

Why is that something that you continue to pursue? 
為什麼你持續地追求這樣的連結？

When I buy a car, I get all the IP that comes along with that car. 
當我買車時同時，也得到所有車身內置的網際網路協定。

Why not when I buy a Qualcomm chip don't I already get the IP that comes along with buying the chip?
那當我買高通晶片時不是同樣地也已經獲取所有內置的網際網路協定。

Well there's a couple reasons. 
恩，有以下幾個原因。

One is if you look at the agreements that we have, we have two separate businesses. 
首先你可以看到我們的協議裡包含了兩個完全不同的商業。

The licensing business is about licensing the full portfolio of Qualcomm's patents. 
專利授權產業是在於授權高通所有專利權的資產組合。

Some of them involve the chip, some of them don't involve chip. 
某些涉及晶片，有些不包含晶片。

In fact, the vast majority of them don't involve the chip. 
事實上，大部分都不含括晶片。

Then on the chip side, we obviously compete in a very, very competitive chip market. 
至於在晶片產業的角度，顯而易知地我們試圖在非常具競爭力的晶片市場裡存活。

And I think when we look at the market, there's no way to conclude that that isn't the most competitive semiconductor industry in the world. 
當我們瞻望市場時，這裡無疑是全球最具有競爭力的半導體產業。

It is the who's who of people that want to work in there.
這是大眾誰想要在這裡工作的情形。

And then there's Apple. The two companies worked together for years but have now filed multiple lawsuits against each other.
接著蘋果品牌就出現了，兩家公司曾經合作多年，但目前已經反目成仇並互相提出訴訟。

We're really just trying to get somebody to pay on a contract that's been in place for 10 years.
我們只是試圖找到願意支付早就存在10年之久的合同。

You have people who are naysayers. One of the naysayers is not an analyst, it's Qualcomm. 
你有部分反對者，而其中之一不是分析家是高通公司。

Qualcomm keeps telling me over and over again, you're going to come to the table, you have to.
高通反覆地告訴我，你必須跟我們見面來討論解決問題的方法。

Lost the suit in Germany, lost the suit in China. 
德國的訴訟失敗，中國的訴訟也失敗 。

Wait till you see them cave. Are you gonna cave?
等到他們妥協，你會妥協嗎？

No. The issue that we have a Qualcomm is that they have a policy of no license, no chips. 
不會。我們的問題是高通採取"不同意授權條件即不供應晶片"政策。

This is in our view illegal and so many regulators in many different countries agree with us. 
這對我們來說是違法的而且許多國家的監管機構都認同。

And then secondly, they have an obligation to offer their patent portfolio on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis and they don't do that. 
再來，他們有義務將自家專利權資產組合以公平和合理且無差別待遇為基準的方式提供，但他們不願意。

They charge exorbitant prices and they have a lot of different tactics they have to do that.
他們運用許多不同的市場策略來提高費用。

So the very basics of these recent legal fights are that the FTC and Apple think Qualcomm is behaving monopolistically. 

基本上，最近幾樁來自聯邦貿易委員會和蘋果的訴訟都起源於高通的壟斷性競爭。

Apple thinks Qualcomm has infringed on its IP and vice versa. 
蘋果與高通都認為對方侵犯自家網際網路協定。

And both Apple and Qualcomm think the other owes them money.
再來雙方都堅信對方尚未付清費用。

Let's say somebody who is not as familiar with the company but sees the headlines. 
假設某位不熟公司名號的人看到了標題。

Well, they settled with the Chinese after a dispute, it was a billion dollars. 
恩，他們在中國以十億元左右和解金來化解糾紛。

Now the South Koreans came after them and it was a $750 million fine, they're challenging that. 
現在南韓也對其索取75億罰金，他們試圖駁回。

The FTC has come after them, Apple's come after them. 
聯邦貿易委員會和蘋果都緊迫盯人。

I mean the optics of it don't look particularly good for this unique business model you talk about.
這樣看下來，對於你口中所說的獨一無二商業模式並不樂觀。

Well, I think it's probably more the result of the industry structure and how powerful some of the people that would like to attack that unique business model are versus the business model itself.
恩，我倒是認為結果來自於商業機構和自家商業模式，以及眾人願意付出多少心力來打擊這所謂的獨一無二商業模式。

And the Qualcomm model is being challenged in another way because companies are increasingly deciding to just make their own chips.
高通模板也變相地受到考驗，因為許多公司逐漸決定要自己開發晶片。

Facebook is doing their own semiconductors. Google, Amazon, Tesla. 
臉書、Google、亞馬遜和特斯拉都在開發自家的半導體。

These people from Qualcomm are now everywhere. 
高通人處處可見。

It doesn't take semiconductor experts to make a chip anymore.
現在研發晶片不再需要半導體專家。

Look, there is no question the company has been through a lot, especially in the past year. 
無庸置疑地公司經歷了許多，尤其是在去年。

In one of the most difficult years that we had with a number of legal activities plus a possible hostile acquisition of the company. 
在我們最艱困的一年面臨了數多件訴訟案，還差點被其他公司惡意收購。

During that year, the team here at Qualcomm accelerated 5G by one year and some of the products we deliver like the Snapdragon 845 has been one of the best products in our history. 
當時，高通團隊在一年之內加快研發5G速度，而生產出的成品像是高通驍龍845排名公司史上最暢銷產品之一。

And I think that speaks to the resiliency and the capability of the Qualcomm employees. 
我認為這就足以代表高通員工的韌性和能力。

If anything I will say, all of the challenges that we have made us to be a much more focused company, make us really understand our core competence and make sure that we continue to do what we do best, which is to move the technology forward, drive the new transition to 5G and basically expand mobile to other industries.
如果有什麼要補充的話，就是所有的挑戰都使我們成為一個更專注的公司，讓我們了解到自家的核心競爭力、並確保我們持續保持最好的一面，繼續推廣技術並順勢轉換到5G市場。基本上就是將我們的行動產品跨行到其他產業裡。

 

Copyright Announcement: The above videos are  from the official Youtube channel of the organization. Why Apple And The FTC Are At War With Qualcomm https://www.youtube.com/user/cnbc. The videos we selected are all publicly available on the official channel, and we do not own the copyright of these videos. Our work on Chinese translation for this film is free for the 1.2 billion audiences in Mandarin Chinese around the world to watch and learn SDGs and SROI advertising campaigns.

 

Copyright Announcement: The above videos are  from the official Youtube channel of the organization. Why Apple And The FTC Are At War With Qualcomm https://www.youtube.com/user/cnbc . The videos we selected are all publicly available on the official channel, and we do not own the copyright of these videos. Our work on Chinese translation for this film is free for the 1.2 billion audiences in Mandarin Chinese around the world to watch and learn SDGs and SROI advertising campaigns.