Panasonic is to withdraw from European mobile phone sales within the next six months, according to reports. If true, the exit would see the company move out from the continent, with leaks suggesting that it will most likely miss its self-set target of 1.5 million smartphone sales this financial year.
Despite recent rumors to the contrary, Nokia won't be releasing waterproof Lumia- or PureView-series handsets anytime soon, The Verge has learned. The indications came from Nokia VP for Western Europe, Conor Pierce, during a presentation on Nokia's research work. He simply mentioned work of a waterproof coating being done in-house, similar to that found in Motorola's Droid Razr and Panasonic's Eluga.
UK electronics retailer Expansys is now offering the Panasonic Eluga smartphone for sale as an unlocked device. Introduced at MWC, the Android 2.3-powered smartphone is powered by a dual-core, 1GHz TI OMAP processor and 1GB of RAM. It is entirely waterproof, however, and an upgrade from the current Android 2.3.5 to Android 4.0 is promised to come this summer.
The Panasonic Eluga is now on sale in Germany, with the UK receiving it on April 24. Amazon.de shows the first smartphone outside of Japan from the manufacturer as available for €406 ($531) unlocked, and in the UK at around £390 ($618).
Panasonic's extra-thin Eluga smartphone has edged closer to release with more concrete launches for Japan and Europe. Its home country is getting the Android 2.3 hardware as the P-04D on March 29 through NTT DoCoMo. That carrier is getting a special Deep Purple hue instead of the normal black.
Many of the Android handsets unveiled this week at Mobile World Congress have maintained similar aesthetics, however Panasonic's Eluga and Eluga Plus bring a unique design. The basic Eluga is not among the many unveiled this week with a quad-core processor, though it does bring a dual-core chip that runs at 1.0GHz. Electronista has taken a closer look at the new device, which is one of the more attractive phones at Mobile World Congress.
Panasonic teased first details of its promised first smartphone outside of Japan on Monday. The Eluga will be very thin yet water- and dust-proof while dominated almost exclusively by its 4.3-inch, 540x960 OLED display. Along with supporting NFC beyond Japan, the Android phone will serve as a remote for Panasonic TVs, although whether it's through Wi-Fi or infrared wasn't explained.
