Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and NEC Corp. said on Thursday they would team up to develop mobile handsets and also join hands in a separate venture with U.S. chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. to develop common hardware and software for cell phones.
In a bid to boost their cell phone operations which are facing fierce competition, Matsushita and NEC will establish a venture in early October that aims to cut development and other costs.
NEC and Matsushita are two of the first companies to offer 3G phones based on the W-CDMA format, but they each managed to capture just a few percent of the global market, putting them far behind industry leaders such as Nokia and Motorola Inc.
With Texas Instruments, Matsushita and NEC will set up a separate venture that will develop communications platforms for mobile phones.
A total of 12 billion yen will be invested in the venture, to be called Adcore-Tech Co. and which will be established in August.
The venture aims to cut the huge costs needed to develop mobile phones that have become increasingly sophisticated and with integration of music, video, broadcasting and other new technologies, the companies said in a statement.
