Back in February Panasonic (TYO:6752) announced that it was targeting the European market with its Eluga smartphone. The sleek, waterproof Android handset is doesn’t look like a bad phone, but it turns out the company will reportedly be suspending phone sales in the region by March of next year.
In addition to its overseas handset sales, the company is also seeing sales at home dropping amid new offerings from foreign companies like Apple and Samsung. Panasonic is planning to restructure its mobile operations, with a new company set to handle that business as a separate subsidiary.
And while part of me wants to blame the company’s woes on its woefully stupud Eluga monikker, there’s far more to it than that. In terms of its overall business, almost everything that could go wrong for the company this year has gone wrong, with an unfavorable currency rate that put Japanese manufacturing at a disadvantage compared to makers in other countries. And the Chinese market hasn’t been especially friendly this year either, with many consumers voicing boycotts of Japanese products, and violent protests in some cities causing the company to shut several plants.
The Japanese electronics maker released its Q2 results today, warning that it will see a $10 billion loss for the second straight year.
[Via PC Advisor]
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