Panasonic Gears Up to Enter the Smartphone Game, Will Employ Android for the Task
Panasonic’s looking to join the smartphone race starting in Japan early next year, according to Reuters. It’s unfamiliar territory for the technology vendor who claims they’ve always wanted to jump into the market, but unfortunately misjudged the rate at which smartphones would take off. Their approach will be similar to Samsung’s in terms of product connectivity as they already host a line of televisions, blu-ray and DVD players, and the like.
Whatever phone they’ll be using to make that first step is, we know it’ll be running Android, says mobile communications unit head Osamu Waki:
“We misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market,” Osamu Waki, head of the company’s mobile communications unit told a news conference. “With the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly.”
This wouldn’t be Panasonic’s first venture into phones. They’ve already had their hand in the feature phone market earlier in the decade, but pulled out due to fierce competition from Nokia, Samsung, and LG. But the smartphone market – while not new – has been reimagined and there is still a lot of room for new players to step up every day. I can’t wait to see what Panasonic has in store for everyone come Spring time.