Japanese firms to partner with samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. and several Japanese firms will partner to set up a joint smartphone chip venture as early as next year to challenge Qualcomm Inc., a Japanese newspaper reported Tuesday. According to the Nikkei business daily, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Fujitsu Ltd; NEC Corp. and Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. are in talks with Samsung to form an alliance to develop, design and sell key chips for next-generation smartphones. The joint venture firm, which will be headquartered in Japan, will be capitalized at 30 billion yen (US$388 million) with NTT DoCoMo taking a majority stake. The chip venture will take aim at the market for semiconductors that control wireless communications and signals, which is dominated by Qualcomm. The San Diego, U.S.-based chipmaker supplies 30 percent of such mobile chips for third-generation handsets. In the global smartphone market, however, more than 80 percent of such chips come from Qualcomm, Nikkei reported. The Asian companies plan to reduce their reliance on Qualcomm chips as global mobile operators move to the fourth-generation wireless technology, it said.