Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic is reported to be planning the launch of smartphones for its home market, building on its existing position as a supplier of ‘mass-market’ devices to operators including NTT DoCoMo. According to Reuters, the company is set to offer Android-powered devices, having acknowledged that it underestimated the speed at which smartphones would become popular in the country – Apple’s iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy S and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia products currently lead the way. Panasonic already offers Linux-based smartphones for DoCoMo, including handsets which use its Lumix digital imaging and Viera television brands. The company pulled out of international markets in 2006, having offered a number of featurephones and also being a member of the Symbian smartphone community.

The news follows reports that Sharp, the largest mobile phone maker in Japan, is also set to target the country’s growing smartphone sector. According to Dow Jones Newswires, this company is looking for a 30 percent share of this market, compared with the 23 percent share it has of the country’s overall handset sector. While research firm MM Research expects 3.86 million smartphones to be sold in Japan during the current financial year, this is expected to pass 20 million in the year ending March 2016, representing significant year-on-year growth. The Japanese handset market is currently dominated by mass-market terminals called ketai, powered by platforms including Symbian OS and Linux, which include a number of features that are still uncommon globally – including mobile broadcast and contactless m-commerce features.