Panasonic getting back in the game with a waterproof Android phone likely to hit Europe in March

Not content to sit on the sidelines while everyone plus dog are making Android phones and tablets for the global market, Panasonic decided to make an exception to its move from consumer electronics to environmental and energy technologies.

It announced plans to start selling an Android handset in March - first in Europe, and then with hopes to expand to the US and Asia, with the goal to sell 15 million handsets by 2016, 9 million of which overseas.

Panasonic was a player in the global phone market before the smartphone era really took off, and now some of this expertise will go into an Android handset for overseas markets with specs yet unknown, but the design render of which was outed, and it looks good.

The handset is apparently "ultra-thin", will sport a 4.3" qHD OLED screen, NFC, and will be waterproof in the best traditions of the art of Japanese smartphone making. No word yet on the silicon that will be powering it, or what camera it will have.

source: Panasonic via Reuters