Fujitsu has teamed up with Orange to launch an Android smartphone targeted at older users. The handset, which is called the Stylistic S01, will launch in France in June this year.

Orange stopped short of calling the launch a European debut for the Japanese vendor, instead describing it as Fujitsu’s “first extensive foray into the smartphone market outside Japan”.

Fujitsu is better known in its home market where a different version of the same handset was first launched last summer under another name.  Docomo launched the original Raku-Raku smartphone F-12D in August 2012.

Docomo developed the F-12D model with Fujitsu. Last summer’s launch was significant for being the first smartphone in the Raku-Raku range, which had previously introduced a number of easy-to-use feature phones to the Japanese market since 2001.  Over 20 million Raku-Raku handsets have been sold.

The Japanese media reported last month that Fujitsu wanted to target older users in Europe and the US with its smartphone.

The Stylistic S01 has features that are designed for older users. These include a screen that is designed to avoid inadvertent touches, a graphic user interface offering extra-large icons and a simplified layout. The handset also has a personal security alarm.

The smartphone also includes audio technology designed to optimise the frequency range depending on a user’s age, making it easier to hear the other person on a call. Another audio function slows down the speech of those callers with rapid speech, without lowering the pitch of their voice or altering the length of the conversation.

Orange says the handset may come to other European markets in the future.

It will be demonstrating the handset at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.