Panasonic expanding smartphone business to European Market

Peter Dinham
Sunday, 11 December 2011 22:27

IT Industry - Market

Japan's Panasonic is to expand its smartphone business to the European market in March next year, and has also a set target of 15 million units for overseas sales of its smartphones by the end of the fiscal year in March 2016, using Europe as a stepping stone to the global market.

In its latest report on its global market ambitions, Panasonic reveals that, with the mobile phone market rapidly shifting to smartphone usage worldwide and a steady growth expected particularly overseas, the company aims to tap into this growth with its first global model smartphone for the European market in March 2012.

With its new smartphone business model, Panasonic says it will expand its lineup, aiming at sales of 1.5 million smartphones in Europe next fiscal year, and by fiscal year 2016, it is targeting global sales of 15 million units, including nine million in Europe, Asia, China, and the United States and six million in Japan (of which five million are smartphones).

The main characteristics of Panasonic's global model  for smartphones are:

'¢ An ultra-slim D-shaped design for easy portability

'¢ Slim bezel with high viewing quality Quarter HD (QHD) 4.3-inch large organic light emitting diode (OLED) screen, and a

'¢ Waterproof and dustproof for ease of handling

In April this year, the Panasonic Group created the Systems & Communications Company (SNC) in advance of its reorganisation scheduled for January 2012 in order to handle products and services related to system, network and mobile communications. Within this company, Panasonic says it will maximise its internal resources, including making use of an existing factory in Malaysia. Currently, phones for the Japanese market are manufactured in the Malaysian factory but now the same factory is also scheduled to manufacture the first global model.

The company says it will continue to expand its product lineup and increase sales in a speedy process by 'thoroughly utilising' the Group's technological assets and development resources as well as its production and sales sites around the world, 'thereby strengthening development, production, and sales structure and product competitiveness.'