Nokia has joined forces with STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and chip designer ARM to prevent Microsoft and Intel from dominating mobile devices over the coming decade.
The alliance will aim to spur development of a wider range of wireless features and to guard against a single industry player dominating the latest generation of phones.
Known as the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance, the participants aim to recruit other mobile phone hardware and software vendors to help define the technological building blocks for the next generation of mobile devices.
Ten working groups will be established by MIPI to develop various specifications in such areas as camera and screen displays. The new organisation will also set rules for other developers to build products that work seamlessly with software, communications and system controls that define the functions and features of next-generation phones.
Each of the four are industry leaders in their own right. Nokia is the world’s best established mobile phone maker; Texas Instruments is the largest manufacturer of digital processors; STM is a leading maker of multimedia chips; ARM is one of the best known designer of core processor chips used in most mobile phones.
The organisation said that it intends to announce new members in the third quarter of 2003.
By John Kennedy
