The move, announced on Thursday, also marks another entrance by major Japanese electronics and information technology firms into Japan's potentially lucrative business of music distribution through the telecommunication network.

Sony Corp said in August it would begin selling music via the Internet by the end of this year, while NTT Docomo said in September it plans to deliver music to its mobile phone subscribers by next summer.

"The rush of new music delivery services this year is prompted by rapid advances in technologies in flash memory chips and data-compression," said Noboru Ishihara, Chief analyst at Nomura Securities. In the latest three-way tie-up, cell phones will be used to download music into next-generation memory sticks, which are being jointly developed by Siemens AG of Germany, Hitachi and Sanyo, a Sanyo spokesman said.

Sanyo will also manufacture cell phones in which the new memory stick can be installed and with a plug for head phones, he said.

Sanyo, Hitachi and Fujitsu said they had also developed a new content copy-right protection technology for the non-wire music delivery system. Shares in Sanyo closed Thursday up 14 yen or 3.41 percent at424 yen ($4.12).