Motorola grabs Chinese partner for battle with Nokia

Motorola and Huawei will cooperate on back-end infrastructure for UMTS and HSPA networks

Motorola has joined forces with Huawei, China's largest mobile phone equipment maker, in an increasingly intense battle with bitter rival Nokia for the leading position in the global mobile phone market. 

The new partners will open a joint research and development centre in Shanghai, and have agreed to cooperate on back-end infrastructure for UMTS and HSPA networks.

The two technologies are generally positioned as the high-bandwidth 3G successor to GSM. UMTS incorporates elements of GSM, but is carried over the W-CDMA interface.

"With this collaboration we are better positioned to meet our customers' 3G network infrastructure needs today and in the future," said Greg Brown, president of Motorola's networks and enterprise division, in a statement.

"This agreement enhances our technological innovation while creating cost savings for our business."

Zhang Shunmao, president of Huawei's wireless product line, added: "Huawei and Motorola customers will benefit immediately from this collaboration, with rapid availability of an innovative and extensive product portfolio. Motorola is the perfect R&D partner for Huawei."

Motorola manufactured almost 52 million mobile phones to seize 22.1 per cent of the global handset market in the second quarter, compared to 33.3 per cent for Nokia, according to data supplied to vnunet.com by Strategy Analytics. 

Motorola has increased its handset market share from 18 per cent over the past year, while its competitors have stood their ground.

Huawei manufactures handsets, but is strongest in the market for back-end network equipment sold to service providers where it generates around 80 per cent of its revenue.