Panasonic to bring Lumix Phone to UK next year?

After a six year hiatus from Europe, Panasonic are set to return to UK shores with exciting new mobile handsets that could add a new dimension to the smartphone market. Focusing purely on the Japanese mobile market over the last few years, Panasonic sell a modest 5 million handsets domestically. Their recent creation, the Lumix Phone 101P, oozes with features that if released in a future UK handset, holds a hot specification to get you salivating!

If you’re a photo enthusiast you may already be familiar of the highly regarded Lumix range of cameras available in the UK.  Leading smartphone cameras found in the likes of the Nokia N8 already provide us with a 12 megapixel resolution and prestigious Carl Zeiss lens.  Where the Lumix Phone 101P differs is its ability to provide an optical zoom and real camera flash, blurring the boundaries between portable camera and camera phone. Boasting a 13.2 megapixel resolution, the Lumix Phone 101P comfortably outperforms any UK released smartphone and would truly compete with standalone cameras for capturing those special moments.

Don’t forget that this release is primarily a smartphone. The Lumix Phone 101P operates Android using a sleek 4” touchscreen display and can store an SD card of up to 32GB for all your favourite media.  The ability to use your phone to pay for items through e-wallet (a similar principle to near field communication as found on the latest Blackberry Curve 9380) shows Panasonic as a brand keen to advance the way we interact with the world.

Panasonic struggled with competition and withdrew from the mobile phone business in Europe and China back in 2005. If Panasonic are serious about re-entering the smartphone market outside of Japan, then they need to hit the competition hard with specifications that change the rules of the game. A release similar to the Lumix Phone 101P would place Panasonic as a popular choice for happy snappers and a serious smartphone rival to the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC.

They have the technology but are they willing to use it? Here’s hoping Panasonic release a Lumix phone to the UK that’s worthy of a comeback!