Motorola, DoCoMo to make 3G phones jointly
Motorola and DoCoMo said they would jointly make 3G handsets, giving the former a way into a market largely out of reach for foreign manufacturers.
Motorola Inc and NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's top mobile phone operator, said on Wednesday they would jointly develop third-generation (3G) handsets, giving Motorola a way into a market largely out of reach for foreign manufacturers.
The new handsets, scheduled for early 2005 launch in Japan and aimed at business users, will work on both high-speed 3G networks and GSM/GPRS networks -- second-generation standards widely used in Europe and Asia -- making them operational outside Japan.
The widely expected deal is likely to give DoCoMo strong bargaining power in price talks with existing Japanese suppliers and enable it to slash its subsidy payments that are intended to keep handset prices affordable.
For Motorola, success in the technologically competitive Japanese market is expected to raise its profile as a 3G handset maker and help boost its global sales.
Japan accounts for less than 10 per cent of global mobile phone demand but it has been at the forefront of a global shift to high-speed services since 2001, when DoCoMo became the world's first mobile operator to launch a commercial 3G service based on the W-CDMA standard, one of two competing 3G formats.
