Japan’s Matsushita Electric will end production of current generation mobile phones for overseas markets, cut more than 1,000 related jobs and focus on developing 3G phones, company sources said. The world’s top electronics maker, known for its Panasonic brand, will close a factory in the Philippines and a development facility in the United States as part of its plan to refocus its resources on phones for next-generation networks, they said. Matsushita said it planned to hold a news conference today in Tokyo. Yoshiaki Kushiki, president of Panasonic Mobile Communications, will attend.
The sources told Reuters that Matsushita, whose mobile division has been losing money, plans to phase out the development and production of phones based on the GPRS standard because it has failed to establish a solid market presence. “We don’t have the funds, scale or endurance to compete in the GSM market with companies like Nokia,” said one source, who declined to be named. “We’re better off investing in next-generation technologies, so we can be out with cost-effective phones that are appealing to the global market when they’re more widely adopted in a few years.” Full Story Here
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