• Reuters, Thursday, February 2, 2006 11:45 AM

Motorola Inc., which scored a marketing home run with its popular RAZR cell phone, is making plans to expand its business in Japan. The company's CEO said Motorola is currently in talks with several Japanese electronics manufacturers it could partner with to launch a line of phones in that country. "We're trying to figure out how to get into the market quicker with our brand and working potentially with someone else," said CEO Ed Zander. "(We're) talking to the NECs, the Panasonics, the Sanyos, and looking at 'Is there technology collaboration to bring products to market?" Global mobile phone makers have had little presence in Japan, in large part because Japanese second-generation mobile networks were based on a unique, home-grown technology. The timing could be good for Motorola, as Japanese mobile operators such as NTT DoCoMo have shown increasing interest in partnerships with foreign handset makers as a way to bring more competition into the market and lower procurement costs.

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