Panasonic, NEC establish cellphone venture
New company to be called 'Esteemo' will design and develop 3G cellphones
Follow @infoworldNEC and Panasonic Mobile Communications have established a joint venture to work on basic design and development of 3G cell phones.
The company, plans for which were first announced in July this year, will be called Esteemo, they said Tuesday in a joint statement. The company is headquartered in Kanagawa prefecture, which borders Tokyo on the south west, and will begin operations on Nov. 6. It will employ about 130 people and begin operations on Nov. 6.
The two companies hope to achieve cost savings by jointly developing a common hardware and software platform. Under the plan those platforms will be provided to NEC and Panasonic for customization and development into cell phones.
NEC and Panasonic have been collaborating on Linux-based cell phones for NTT DoCoMo's 3G service since 2001.
