Panasonic today announced that it plans to cease making and selling smartphones for consumers.
The company has been reevaluating its mobile phone business for several months and moving forward will make only feature phones for its home market of Japan. Feature phones still make up 30% of phone sales in Japan, and Panasonic can produce them at a lower cost and with better margins. Panasonic has not sold cell phones in the U.S. for many years.
Panasonic’s exit from the consumer smartphone market follows that of in-country rival NEC, which announced similar plans earlier this year.
