Panasonic Shutters U.S. Mobile Operations

Panasonic Corporation of North America has officially closed down its U.S. mobile phone operations due to lack of support from carrier partners. The last handset sold through a carrier (AT&T Wireless) in the United States was GU87 camera phone, almost two years ago. After failing to find new carrier partnerships, Panasonic has been selling phones on its Web site, but it seems not to justify the efforts of testing handsets for the US market. Now Panasonic Corporation will focus its attention on manufacturing mobile phones for Europe and Japan.

Personally I agree with this business decision. While Panny offers some really nice products for the Asian market, their business plan for mobiles in the US was horrible. They put out outdated, overpriced and underperforming products. Plus even dreaming of the best business possible they would be hard pressed to compete with firms like Nokia, Moto and the whole new slew of PDA/Phone combos.