Panasonic is gearing up to make a push in both the European and US market for its Android handsets. It currently sells handsets in its home country of Japan, but needs to expand if it wants to survive in the handset business. It’s facing the growing pressure of a shrinking Japanese market caused by competition from companies like HTC, Samsung and the giant known as Apple. Well, all of this is soon to change because Panasonic is currently trying to strike a deal with a major telco in Europe to bring Android handsets to the continent, according to Japan’s biggest business publication, The Nikkei.
The report claims the only hold up is Panasonic itself. The company hasn’t decided if it should build the phones in one of its own plants in South East Asia or outsource production to another company. Panasonic has big plans which includes Asia and U.S. expansion, with a lofty goal of selling 7.5 million units per year internationally per year by 2015 (last year numbers were an abysmal 4.4 million phones sold).
Honestly, this is a good news for Panasonic as it attempts to get its house in order. The company is almost non-existant when it comes to the global cell phone market, so putting small pieces of a plan together is commendable. It’s going to be interesting to see what the final decision will be when it comes to building its own phones or putting the faith in another company.
The bigger unknown is Panasonic’s overall strategy. Either Panasonic is completely out of its mind in believing there’s still room for another manufacturer in the market, or they know something we don’t know, which has given them a new found confidence.
[via TechCrunch]