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Major Phone Manufacturers Launch own Software Platform
(26 Apr 2010, BWCS Staff)Four major Japanese electronics companies have agreed to standardize their main software platform for future mobile phones. The quartet says the move is designed to save money and make them more competitive, according to reports in the Japanese business newspaper The Nikkei Daily.
The four firms; NEC, Sharp, Panasonic and Fujistu say they will employ the new operating system on the next generation of mobile phones to be developed for domestic mobile giant NTT DoCoMo. The new software is expected to make its debut on phones launched in DoCoMo's next financial year-but-one, 2012.
The Nikkei reports that a switch to a unified software system could lead to a 50% reduction in the development costs of next-generation phones. According to the newspaper, the development usually takes one to two years and would cost between Yen 20 billion (US$212 million) and Yen 30 billion (US$317 million) per model.
The four electronics companies involved in the new software believe it will not only cut costs but help them fight off rivals in their domestic market, which the Nikkei says accounts for nearly 70% of their sales of 34 million phones. At the same time, the companies hope to use the new system to expand foreign sales, where the four lag behind other industry heavyweights.
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