
Once they succeed, the NTT DoCoMo-KTF smartphone product will be launched in 2009, following to T-Mobile's G1 smartphone, the first device to carry Google's mobile OS, which started selling this year.
T-Mobile's G1 is made by Taiwanese firm HTC but is bogged by criticisms over its design and looks.
The NTT DoCoMo-KTF Android smartphone will be given a price tag that would be 20 percent lower than those of current units in the market.
NTT DoCoMo and rival KDDI are two Japanese telcos that are part of the Open Handset Alliance which includes Intel Corp, eBay, LG, Motorola, Qualcomm and Samsung. The group aims to develop Android and to "commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Pltform.
NTT DoCoMo owns 100 percent of DoCoMo Pacific, a telco serving Guam and Marianas, and holds sizeable shares of major telcos in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Bangladesh.