KDDI plans to develop common mobile phones software

Japan’s second largest telecoms company KDDI says it plans to work with Toshiba Corp, Sanyo Electric and Qualcomm of the US to jointly develop a common operating system for mobile phones. The move is designed to cut down on R&D for new handsets by up to two-thirds and will involve the four companies working together on a universal OS for cameras, messaging programs and wireless applications. KDDI says the new software will be ready for launch by end-2007.

Handset makers can spend as much as 10 billion to 20 billion yen ($85-170 million) to develop a high-end new model, with the bulk of the cost going to designing software. Designing a new handset can take as long as two years, but KDDI hopes joint software development will cut development to less than a year.
KDDI has 26 million mobile phone subscribers in Japan.

Shares in KDDI were up 1.1 percent at 727,000 yen, while the TOPIX index was up 0.34 percent, as of 0455 GMT.
KDDI, which trails behind giant NTT DoCoMo, has been attempting to slash costs through partnerships.
Last month it announced a joint venture with Britain's number one telecom operator BT Group to develop international telecommunications and high-speed Internet services.