“The smartphone industry keeps claiming more victims,” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The Wall Street Journal. “The latest is Japanese electronics giant, Panasonic Corp., confirming that it plans to stop development of smartphones for the mass market in order to reallocate its resources elsewhere.”
“Panasonic said it plans to focus on manufacturing and selling feature phones – or the clamshell-type handsets that were a staple of the pre-iPhone era,” Wakabayashi reports. “Feature phones still maintain a loyal following in Japan, accounting for about 30% of all mobile phones sold. Needless to say, that figure is shrinking.”
“It will suspend development of smartphones for consumer markets from October,” Wakabayashi reports. “Panasonic’s exit comes two months after another domestic rival, NEC Corp., announced its own retreat from the smartphone market and amid a flurry of deals that signal how past mobile phone performance is no indication of future success in the smartphone age.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPhone, serial killer.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Scott M.” for the heads up.]
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Ha! Don’t you love when you learn about the existence and demise of a product all at the same time. Weird.
Panasonic makes smartphones? Who knew.
Panasonic had a smartphone?
Panasonic Exec: “We are losing our shirts on smartphones! Get out now!”
Panasonic Junior: “Where do you want to use those resources?”
Panasonic Exec: “Feature phones! That’s where we can make money in Japan! Still 30% of the market! We can rule it!”
Panasonic Junior: “Hello, Sony? Do you have any job openings?”
It would have ran on Fragmandroid anyway.
“MacDailyNews Take: iPhone, serial killer.”
Has there been 3 already?
1. Palm
2. Kin
3. Blackberry
4. Motorola (good as dead, in the arms of the devil)
Apple USED (manipulated) Android to do the low-end dirty work for those “kills,” while Apple took over and mopped up the profits at the “premium” end of the market.
Apple and the Android platform are actually partners in knocking off the competition. Google may not realize it, but Apple sure does… All Apple wants left in as “competition” in the mobile world are the fragmented, malware-ridden, and utterly predictable Android collective.
Now that even RIM is gone, and Windows (on phones and tablets) is perpetually hopeless, Android’s role for Apple going forward is to serve as a “barrier” at the low end, so that new (non-Android) players cannot (easily) emerge and become successful in the mobile space.
Apple versus Android works perfectly fine for Apple, just as Apple versus Windows worked out VERY well.
5. Nokia (Sold off their handset business to Microsoft. See #2 above.)
Panasonic is an “Electronic giant”?!
Then what the hell is Apple? I’m lost for a comparison, please help me out with a proper discription.
They actually are, at least in terms of home entertainment. They made TVs, VCRs, DVD players, and the fabulous “Panasonic Q” which is a very rare, very futuristic looking, GameCube/DVD player combo.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I understand that Panasonic is a very large company that manufactures a lot of very good products.
I’m just always a little taken back when a writer uses descriptions like “Giant” or “Worlds largest software company” when they talk about MS (by the way is bull$hit).
Don’t you find it strange that they use those words or terms when describing companies and they don’t seem to use them when they write about Apple.
That’s why I asked, I’m trying to come up with a word that would best describe the magnitude of Apple, their reach and innovation when comparing them to others.
All I ever seem to hear them say is the “iPhone maker”. Granted, that’s pretty freak’n big concidering that product along make more then several of the top 10 companies in the world.
Could they say, “Apple, the worlds most innovative company?” I suppose they could but they won’t.
My HDTV is Panasonic, and it’s quite good (except for the eyesore remote control). My rice cooker is Panasonic too… makes good rice 🙂
I guess you can say Panasonic is “more diversified” than Apple.
I have a Panasonic camera, which takes decent enough pictures, but I don’t think a corporation can make great products when it makes so many different things. This was the great wisdom Steve Jobs brought back to Apple and he killed off the printer and server divisions. I hope Apple stays focused on what it does best and never makes a smart microwave oven or stylish washing machine.
Well, Apple may have a lot of cash but “giant” could mean many things. Like what is the biggest waterfall?
Panasonic has more products (do I need to name them for you?) and more employees (293,742), I’m sure, than Apple (50,250 employees). Example: “Panasonic Corporation is one of the largest electronic product manufacturers in the world, comprised of over 680 companies”. No one said they were the biggest but they are still a giant, one of the giants. No one said Apple was not.
Hope this helps.
BTW, Apple net sales are $140B/yr and Panasonic is half or $74B/yr. Interesting point: instead of giving it’s profits to it’s employees, Apple is hoarding it’s cash. Simple math.
Apple brings in $2.8M per employee.
Typical manufacturer brings in $100K to $200K per employee.
Panasonic, by your numbers, brings in $249K per employee.
Interesting, in deed.
“iPhone, serial killer.” : Genius! 😂
Pana who?
More blood on Apple iPhone’s Multi-Touch screen — Oh really now? First of all, when Apple kills, it doesn’t leave a mess, even on itself! I see no blood on my iPhone 5s screen. What evidence are they basing this on? What if it’s Samsung doing the “killing” not Apple? Besides, iPhone’s don’t kill other devices, people do. Read Panasonic’s MD&A and you’ll see whey they pulled their device – due primarily to “competition”, but they don’t say with who (because even they don’t know). Remember what George Carlin said, “Question everything!”. Don’t believe what you read.
Panasonic can barely make a audio receiver that does not make me want to puke. Please stay far far away from smart phones.