Nokia, the world's biggest cell phone maker, and Sanyo the largest handset-battery producer have announced that they will form a venture to make mobile phones together. Nokia and Sanyo plan to produce handsets based upon the primary format used in the United States CDMA2000.
In recent years Nokia's global market share and share of the U.S. market has declined in relation to handset manufacturers Motorola, who has garnered the largest chunk of handset sales in the U.S.
Nokia and Sanyo aim to raise their sales by bringing together Nokia's dominance in low- to mid-range phones and the Japanese electronics maker's expertise in handsets with high- speed Internet access that can download music and video. The alliance is good news for Sanyo who has suffered recently because of serious competition.
Nokia expects to benefit greatly from increased demand for more advanced phones, as markets in Europe and the U.S. approach saturation and prices drop precipitously.
Yesterday, Nokia released news about the new 6136 they will start selling that allows customers to make calls on WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) using VOIP (Voice Over IP) over the Web.
The Nokia/Sanyo venture plans to sell 35 million handsets in the first year and will target not just the U.S., but Brazil, Russia, India and China as well.
