Following on the Fujitsu / Toshiba mobile merger, reports have bubbled up saying that they’ve already started on their first handset, which is headed to Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and will be running Android. Little beyond that is known, but the platform choice is significant, given Toshiba had already put significant time and effort into some rightly impressive Windows Mobile hardware. Though the bulk of Fujitsu’s previous experience in mobile revolved around feature phones, they’ve worked with DoCoMo on getting LTE ready in Japan.
Android has already made a big slash in Japan with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, which on the one hand has paved the way for Fujitsu, but will also offer a bit of competition on the same carrier. The quality of this Android handset will be a good barometer of how well the Fujitsu merger works out, but as their first phone together, I would expect at least a few hiccups. Fujitsu’s Android smartphone should be ready to launch on DoCoMo sometime in 2011.