Japan phone makers team up to develop new platform

Four leading Japanese electronics makers said Monday they will team up with top network operator NTT DoCoMo to develop the operating system for its next-generation cellphones, due for launch next year.

Sharp, Panasonic, NEC and Fujitsu will work together with NTT DoCoMo and Japanese chip maker Renesas Technology to develop a platform compatible with systems such as Linux and Symbian.

The new platform will offer improved processing speeds for high quality video as well as enhanced 3D graphics processing for more advanced mobile multimedia functions, DoCoMo said in a statement.

The tie up will see Sharp, Panasonic, NEC and Fujitsu work together in an effort to cut development time and costs for the platform which is planned to be offered to mobile phone makers worldwide, the statement said.

While dominating the competitive and highly saturated domestic market for mobile phones, the four makers are looking to make further inroads in overseas handset markets.

Given the lack of new opportunities at home, "we can expect profitability to rise when including potential in the competitive handset market overseas," Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Yuichi Ishida told Dow Jones Newswires.