Many are asking what Nokia Corp.’s and Motorola Inc.’s ascendancy is doing to all the other handset vendors-the two together hold 56 percent of the world’s handset business-and one answer surfaced last week: venturing jointly.
NEC Corp., NEC Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments Inc. said they would join forces to develop, design and license technology for a hardware and software communications platform for next-generation mobile handsets. The effort’s first handsets are expected to reach market in the fall of 2007, according to the companies.
NEC and Panasonic Mobile are handset vendors, and Matsushita, NEC Electronics and Texas Instruments are chipset manufacturers. Each player has agreed to license technology to the new company for 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G handsets. NEC Electronics, Matsushita and TI will also sell chips developed by the JV to handset vendors. The JV also plans to license its platform and other products to handset vendors.
The new company will take the unassuming name Adcore-Tech Co. Ltd. and be headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan, with about 180 employees. The five companies will invest a total of $104 million in the JV, with NEC and NEC Electronics holding 44-percent share; Matsushita and its handset arm, Panasonic Mobile, holding 44 percent; and TI taking the remaining 12 percent.
The companies cited the well-known, high cost of handset development as their reason for establishing the JV. But clearly the increasing market dominance of Nokia and Motorola also is driving players into each others’ arms.
