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back to article Panasonic to build Toughbook-style smartphone

Panasonic has become the latest venerable Japanese electronics giant to abandon the consumer smartphone market, with the firm set to concentrate its efforts on producing a “Toughbook” handset for business use. Company president Kazuhiro Tsuga told Reuters that it will continue to sell consumer handsets in emerging markets …

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  1. LarsG

    Strange that the BBC technology pages are claiming Panasonic are to withdraw from making smart phones?

    Didn't know they still made them?

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  2. Matt_payne666

    This will be atleast the second Toughbook Phone - the first being CF-P2 a WinMo5 based thing - quite a robust phone - would be nice if the new one was winpho8 - Id buy one for use on the yacht

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  3. larokus

    penetration is the problem

    I have NEVER, not even once, seen a Panasonic phone in north america. They have made some sexy phones over the years and nothing has ever landed here. Probably tough to make money when your product isn't on the shelf.

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    1. Tim Bates
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      Re: penetration is the problem

      I suspect you can blame the telcos for that... They seem to believe media hype and ignore customer's actual requests.

      Not just guessing that - we were a dealer for a major telco for about 3 years and were asked to provide out input on that topic.

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  4. Johnr

    Day Late and a dollar short this side of the pond. We have been using the Kyocera Torque ruggedized smart phone for 6 months . Great phone , android , reasonably sized screen and push to talk .

    http://www.sprint.com/landings/kyocera_torque/index.html?ECID=vanity:torque

    Sony: Asleep at the wheel

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  5. ecofeco Silver badge

    Speaking of Toughbooks

    I have yet to figure out why some extra plastic and rubber on and in a laptop justifies a 400% markup over normal laptops.

    Shock resistant HDDs? Been around for decades. Watertight plastic cases? Buy them at the grocers every day. Rubber mounted innards? That has to be at least 100 years old.

    So Pani is going to make a tough phone? I can buy a case for mine for less than $20 and it works just fine. What will they charge? $200?

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    1. Matt_payne666
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      Re: Speaking of Toughbooks

      have you used or worked on a Toughbook? they are very well made machines... Ive had several and they justify the cost...

      its more than rubber on the corners, the whole casing is magnesium, all the ports are connected with cable for replacement if one is damaged - I have used an old one of mine submerged, Ive thrown one in the air before and no damage... my 3 yearold stood on the display once and it didn't crack... stuff two batteries into the device and 8hours+ runtime... when racing there is no need to worry about the unit, it just gets stuffed into a rope bag or left on the floor... just hose it off when home... Toughbook and peli are two brands I just love for their durability.

      then there is the use in vertical markets... things like the same dock being used for the past 10 years of revisions... totally sealed machines for use in explosive conditions... quick release HDD caddies for fast reprovisioning in the event of hardware malfunction........

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  6. Matt_payne666

    And the 1000+ nit display with circular polarization to allow daylight use... Or the optional passive sunlight display... The hard drives arnt just shock mounted, they are heated to allow use in sub zero temps... The bios not starting a drive till its warm enough to prevent damage to the bearings if they are frozen...

    there is a reason police, military, ambulance service, gas & oil exploration, rescue services, etc use these machines...

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