Mobile vendor strategies - 05/04/06

NEC has begun talks with Matsushita Electric and Toshiba for the joint development of 3G cellular phones. The move is part of a general trend between Japan’s mobile phone makers to share the costs of R&D and of defining sophisticated features.

Qualcomm signed a multi-year content deal with Network Live for its MediaFlo' s U.S. carrier partners. It will also deploy MediaFlo mobile TV technology in Las Vegas during the CTIA 2006 trade show (several handsets from LG, Samsung, Motorola, Pantech, Sharp and Kyocera) will be available.

Motorola introduces a new version of its super-slim Razr phone (Razr V3m) for CDMA networks.

Nokia will resell, distribute and support RadioFrame Networks picocell base stations. In a separate announcement, it said it has missed a self-imposed deadline to commence shipments of its E-series multimedia phones (BlackBerry rival handsets).