NEW DELHI: Panasonic will expand its smartphone business to Bangladesh and Myanmar in the next 3-4 months as the Japanese electronics major looks to cash in on the booming demand for mobility devices in the region. The company, which gets about 80 per cent of its consumer smartphone revenues from India, also has operations in the Middle East and Africa besides Sri Lanka and Nepal.
“Panasonic had re-entered the consumer smartphone business some two-and-a-half years back. Since then, we have made steady progress and have seen tremendous growth,” Panasonic India Business Head (Mobility Division) Pankaj Rana told PTI. “In the next 3-4 months, the company will launch its products in Bangladesh and Myanmar,” he added.
Rana said while India accounts for 80 per cent of the smartphone business, the share will reduce to 60 per cent as other markets grow. Apart from India, Saudi Arabia and the African region are “big markets” for Panasonic, he said. Panasonic had earlier said it expects to more than double its revenues from mobile phone business in India to Rs 2,500 crore in this fiscal from Rs 1,200 crore last year. The company today launched a new smartphone – ELUGA Arc 2 – in India for Rs 12,290.
The handset features a 5-inch display, 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory (expandable up to 128 GB), 8MP rear and 5MP front camera and 2,450 mAh battery. The dual SIM, 4G-enabled handset is powered by Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) operating system. “We are expanding our 4G Voice over LTE (VoLTE) portfolio and in the coming months, all our devices will support VoLTE,” Rana said. Currently, Panasonic has 18 devices in its portfolio, of which 3 support 3G and rest are 4G-enabled.
