Nokia, Qualcomm to make smartphones

Nokia has struck important deals with long-time rival Qualcomm and chip developer Broadcom.

Nokia and Qualcomm are to jointly develop 3.5G smartphones based on Symbian S60 software, the companies announced.

The first devices will be launched in North America in mid-2010. The phones, initially for the North American market, will use Qualcomm's MSM series chipsets and be compatible with Symbian's forthcoming open source platform.

"We are very excited about leveraging the substantial synergies between S60 software and MSM chipsets," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

The deal follows the settlement last year of a lengthy patent dispute between the two firms over 2G, 3G and 3.5G technologies that was fought out in US and European courts. They settled last July with a 15-year agreement covering all major wireless standards.

Nokia has also contracted its 2G and EDGE chip supplier, Broadcom, to make 3G and 3.5G chips. The contract covers 3G baseband, RF and mixed signal chipsets, Nokia said.