TOKYO—NEC and Matsushita Communication Industrial, two leading telecom vendors in Japan, on Thursday announced they will develop two-chip third-generation (3G) handsets. NEC and Matsushita, both FOMA venders for NTT DoCoMo, last August partnered for 3G handset development to reduce huge research and development (R&D) costs.
According to the two firms, they will develop their first handset based on the two-chip architecture in September at the earliest. At the same time, the two firms will license the platform based on the two-chip architecture to other vendors.
On the same day, the two firms also announced they have set up a new development center called 3G Mobile Collaboration Office for the joint effort in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, where 50 engineers are working. They are planning to increase the number of engineers to 100 by September.
