Qualcomm's Steve Mollenkopf out to break into China Mobile network

Qualcomm's Steve Mollenkopf helped get the company's chips into the world's top-selling phones. His challenge now is making deeper inroads in the world's biggest market.

Cracking China's phone system is the most critical task facing Mollenkopf, who will become Qualcomm's chief executive in March, as the company's growth slows elsewhere.

Qualcomm, whose chips and technology are key parts of Apple's iPhone and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy family, is largely absent from devices on China Mobile's network because the state-owned carrier deployed a related system it said was developed locally.

As mainland carriers upgrade to a higher-speed network called long-term evolution (LTE), Qualcomm needs to gain a wider foothold in the market, particularly with China Mobile, which has twice as many subscribers as the United States has people.

Mollenkopf, a 20-year company veteran, also is grappling with an antitrust probe by a Chinese government agency, which has not revealed why it is investigating Qualcomm.

Underscoring the challenges that other US companies have with China Mobile, it took Apple six years to come to an agreement with the carrier before announcing a deal last month.