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Motorola, Sega To Develop Internet Cellular Phones TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Sega Enterprises Ltd. said it would develop with U.S. giant Motorola Inc. a cellular phone offering electronic games and Internet access. The world's second largest cellular phone maker and the Japanese video game maker will unveil an agreement at the "JavaOne 2000" high-technology conference in San Francisco later Monday, Sega said. "We hope this joint development with Motorola will boost the popularity of Sega's various systems," said Sega spokeswoman Miyako Shimizu. Under the accord, the two firms will develop an application-programming interface (API) based on Sega's technology and use it in Motorola's cell phones, she said. The high-speed capability of API will allow users to play video games by enhancing Motorola phones' data-processing capacity for pictures and sound, she said. "We will use technology which we have cultivated in the Dreamcast games machine," said Shimizu. The high-performance Dreamcast also has an Internet connection, which enables users to download games and play others on a network. Motorola and Sega plan to market 10 million units of the new mobile phone in the United States and other countries from early next year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Motorola planned to use the interface in many of its planned 100 million phones to be shipped in 2001, the business daily said. The Sega spokeswoman was unable to confirm the figures and Motorola in Tokyo declined to comment ahead of the San Francisco announcement. The "i-mode" service of Japanese mobile phone leader NTT DoCoMo Inc., which enables users to look at Internet webpages and play simple games, has proved wildly popular in Japan since its launch in February last year
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