Nokia and Sanyo announced Tuesday that they will jointly form a separate company to pursue the CDMA2000 market.
The venture pairs Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, which markets a number of successful CDMA products, with Sanyo, an old line Japanese electronics manufacturing conglomerate that has slipped below the top tier of mobile device makers worldwide.
They have entered into a preliminary agreement to form the new company, which will be created by combining their CDMA assets. The name of the company was not detailed.
The new entity will be a completely separate firm owned by the two parent companies, and will have its facilities based out of San Diego in the United States and in Tottori, Japan.
By placing a major plant in San Diego, Nokia will be bearding lion Qualcomm, the CDMA pioneer, in its den. Nokia and Qualcomm are engaged in bitter patent litigation over CDMA intellectual property.
Nokia, which is number three in the CDMA market, has struggled for years in CDMA as it tried to avoid using chips by Qualcomm, which holds most of the patents to the technology
CDMA2000 has been on the rise in the United States and popular in parts of Latin America and Asia including Japan, India and China, precisely the regions Nokia is targeting with Sanyo.
The joint company, which is expected to start operations in the third quarter of this year, would become the world's largest CDMA mobile phone maker alongside South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd by current shipment volumes.
A Japanese newspaper reported that Sanyo would be the majority owner of the unit, but the report could not be confirmed.
Press reports quoted Nokia executives as saying the new venture would employ about 3,500, although a few hundred would lose their jobs at Nokia.
About 20 percent of the world's mobile phones are CDMA and Nokia estimates the annual global CDMA handset market to be worth about US$28 billion in 2006. It expects CDMA subscribers to reach 450 million in 2010 from about 300 million currently.
The venture pairs Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, which markets a number of successful CDMA products, with Sanyo, an old line Japanese electronics manufacturing conglomerate that has slipped below the top tier of mobile device makers worldwide.
They have entered into a preliminary agreement to form the new company, which will be created by combining their CDMA assets. The name of the company was not detailed.
The new entity will be a completely separate firm owned by the two parent companies, and will have its facilities based out of San Diego in the United States and in Tottori, Japan.
By placing a major plant in San Diego, Nokia will be bearding lion Qualcomm, the CDMA pioneer, in its den. Nokia and Qualcomm are engaged in bitter patent litigation over CDMA intellectual property.
Nokia, which is number three in the CDMA market, has struggled for years in CDMA as it tried to avoid using chips by Qualcomm, which holds most of the patents to the technology
CDMA2000 has been on the rise in the United States and popular in parts of Latin America and Asia including Japan, India and China, precisely the regions Nokia is targeting with Sanyo.
The joint company, which is expected to start operations in the third quarter of this year, would become the world's largest CDMA mobile phone maker alongside South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd by current shipment volumes.
A Japanese newspaper reported that Sanyo would be the majority owner of the unit, but the report could not be confirmed.
Press reports quoted Nokia executives as saying the new venture would employ about 3,500, although a few hundred would lose their jobs at Nokia.
About 20 percent of the world's mobile phones are CDMA and Nokia estimates the annual global CDMA handset market to be worth about US$28 billion in 2006. It expects CDMA subscribers to reach 450 million in 2010 from about 300 million currently.