Japanese firms-Samsung to develop next-gen smartphone chip

NTT DoCoMo and other Japanese firms intends to partner with Samsung to develop chips for next-generation smartphones to reduce the dependence on Qualcomm Inc.

The companies, including Fujitsu Ltd, NEC Corp and Panasonic Corp unit Panasonic Mobile Communications Co, are in talks to form a joint venture next year to develop chips that control wireless communications and signals.

Qualcomm has about 80 per cent of the market for such semiconductors, known as baseband chips. DoCoMo is to take a majority stake in the joint venture, to be capitalized at about 30 billion yen ($389.6 million).