
Motorola: mystery smartphones for Japan
---Motorola has reportedly secured a contract to supply smartphones to NTT DoCoMo---
August 25, 2004 6:13 PM GMT (Datamonitor) -Motorola looks to have won a deal to sell 3G smart phones in Japan, courtesy of NTT DoCoMo.....The DoCoMo deal, which is likely to be announced formally this week, is expected to see Illinois-based Motorola supplying business-oriented handsets for DoCoMo's Foma service. The devices, which will be styled as Business Foma phones, were reported in the UK press to be similar in concept to "the high-end PDAs Motorola sells in the US".....
The most likely scenario is that Motorola's DoCoMo phones will be Linux powered: in December 2003, DoCoMo announced its intention to concentrate smartphone development on Linux and Symbian OS, and Motorola's estrangement from Symbian makes the open source OS favorite. While the company does continue to make Symbian OS phones, this is only as part of an exclusive arrangement with Hutchison Whampoa for its 3 network.