Motorola has signed an agreement with Texas Instruments for chips to power future mobile phones. Previously Motorola has relied on silicon from Freescale, a company that Motorola spun off in 2003. Motorola has been a little slow in getting advanced 3G phones to the market -- but won't be left behind in 2007. From a financial perspective, this agreement won't help the bottom line much in 2007 -- Motorola handsets based on the new Texas Instruments chips will begin shipping in 2008.

TI's embedded chips will help launch both 3G and WiMAX (802.16e) data connectivity to major telecom players like Sprint Nextel. Motorola, along with Intel is one of the early adopters of next generation WiMAX and expects to begin shipping a new line of 802.16e mobile devices next year when Sprint is heavily rolling out 4G. Motorola Labs division is the force behind this recent announcement, continuing to push innovation in the wireless space.