Panasonic planning European smartphone market exit, less than a year after its return

Panasonic could be planning to withdraw from the European smartphone market, despite only having rejoined at the beginning of the year. Poor sales are cited as the reason, but a lack of effort and financial problems could be closer to the mark.

A new report indicates Panasonic is considering withdrawing its range of phones from Europe, despite only having re-entered the market at the beginning of the year.

Having previously left Europe in 2005, so it could concentrate on sales at home, Panasonic announced its return in February, and showed off its new handsets during Mobile World Congress. A Reuters report says it wanted to sell 1.5 million phones this year, but it’s unlikely to reach this figure, prompting talk of a withdrawal.

It placed its hopes on two phones, the Eluga and the Eluga Power. The former is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, and a 1.2GHz, dual-core Texas Instruments processor. Despite boasting a slim, 7.8mm chassis and an attractive, waterproof body, this specification barely provided the phone with the power to compete with devices from Samsung, Apple and HTC.

The Eluga Power could have been a bigger success, as it has a 5-inch, high definition touchscreen, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip, Android 4.0 and IP57 water and dust proofing. A true competitor to the Galaxy Note, then.

Both phones could be purchased through online retailers, but Panasonic never appeared to sign any deals with UK networks. While this isn’t quite as important as it is in the US, it would have been essential for Panasonic to re-connect with buyers and promote its new phones.

Evidence of trouble brewing came when the firm told TechRadar.com in August that it was selling its two phones “to consumers in Germany and Italy and currently does not have any plans to change this.” A report in The Times around the same time said Panasonic had put its European smartphone plans on hold, and “looked likely to abandon its mass market ambitions.”

The smartphone market is tough, but Panasonic’s potential exit could be directly related to the $7.6 billion bailout given to it by Japanese banks this month after record losses, rather than any failure to perform following its half-hearted attempt to break back into Europe.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Panasonic announces DMC-GH3 Micro Four Thirds camera, two new lenses and a battery grip

Photokina is now underway and we’ve already seen new cameras by virtually every major manufacturer out there. It’s now Panasonic’s turn to join the fun as the company just unveiled its latest Micro Four Thirds camera.

The Panasonic DMC-GH3 comes to replace the GH2 Micro 4/3 camera. Along with the GH3 Panasonic also ousted two new LUMIX G X series lenses – 12-35mm and 35-100mm and a new battery grip.

The Panasonic GH3 comes with a 16.05 MP multi-aspect ratio sensor and a maximum ISO of 12800 (25600 with extension) and improves on almost every aspect of its predecessor – the electronic viewfinder and rear display are now OLED instead of LCD, the sensor is improved and the GH3 uses the latest Venus image processor. Continuous shooting has been boosted to 6 fps from 5 fps. Additionally the EVF now covers all 100% of the image.

Panasonic put a lot of emphasis on video recording. The GH3 now does 1080p video capture at the doubled 60p (instead of 60i or 30p of the GH2) and has gone with a very high 80 Mbps bitrate over the smartphone-esque 24 Mbps of the GH2. There’s also a 3.5 mm microphone jack in place of the 2.5 mm one. Stereo microphones on the GH3 body are also present.

The body of the GH3 is noticeably bulkier but is weather sealed and made from a magnesium alloy. This means that the GH3 is almost as light as the GH2 (550g with battery only versus the 609g of the GH2 with a battery and the 14-42mm kit lens).

Panasonic’s new Lumix G X series lenses include the 12-35 mm and the 35-100 mm zooms. Both feature Panasonic’s renowned POWER O.I.S. image stabilization. You can read DPReview’s preview of the Panasonic DMC-GH3 here.

Pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed by Panasonic.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com